Convince Me
by watchthesummersunrise
Summary: Santana meets Kurt at the gym. Somehow, he lands her a job interview for a position at the esteemed company, Market Communications Initiative. This could be her chance to land her dream job. Will she nail the interview or will she flop? Also, who on earth is Brittany S. Pierce and why does she seem so comfortable making Santana question everything she's ever known about anything?
1. The First Time We Met

Santana Lopez was pedaling so hard that her sweat was beginning to drip down her forehead and run into her eyes. She chose to continue her workout with her eyes closed for fear of being catapulted off her stationary bike should she dare to let go to wipe her eyes.

"Pedal harder, folks!" The workout instructor was yelling at the class like they all weren't about to die from lack of oxygen. "You'll only be successful in life if you push yourself to your absolute limit! Find your breaking point!"

The sound of the entire class gasping for air filled the room.

Ten minutes, and many sips of water later, Santana was collapsed against the wall of the now-empty classroom. "Honestly, Kurt, I never want to see that Hobbit again. It's a wonder they ever let her escape The Shire."

Kurt Hummel had only recently become friends with the pretty dark-haired girl he kept bumping into at the gym. They had bonded over their mutual appreciation of the gym's hot tub. Only recently, however, did they start planning their gym visits with one another. Last week, Santana had met Kurt at the gym for a Pilates boot camp and this week Kurt had signed them up for something called _Cycle Fever_. "You know, referencing Lord of the Rings just makesyou look dorkier." He told Santana. He then offered out his hand to help get Santana to her feet.

Santana groaned. "I have a younger brother. I'm allowed to know about dorky wizards." She accepted his hand and begrudgingly got to her feet. "This was supposed to _relax_ me before another hellish work week. All it did was make me was to crawl into bed and never move again." Santana followed Kurt out of the room, through the exit gates, and into the lobby of the gym. "Next week we are going to yoga. _That_ will be relaxing."

Kurt nodded. "Totally. I'll meet you here at the same time then?"

Santana agreed. "Yea, call me if you want to get lunch sometime this week. I have to get out of that stupid cubicle."

Kurt, although he still felt like he was just getting to know Santana, had already come to understand how much she loathed her job. From what he had heard, she was underpaid and stuffed into a cubicle. He also remembered that she was looking for other jobs and having a hard time in doing so. "Wait!" He called out to her just as she was getting into her car ten feet away.

"What?" Santana asked, not bothering to walk over to him. Her thighs burned.

"You know how I work for that corporate company?"

Santana had only heard a little about Kurt's job. It seemed like Kurt wasn't completely interested in what his company did, exactly. He was more focused on being a perfect Personal Assistant to the CEO. "Yea…?"

"Well…" Kurt walked over to Santana. "I don't know if I'm exactly allowed to do this but…"

Santana could feel his hesitance and was getting impatient. "Spit it out, my legs are on fire!"

"Okay, okay well the company I work for is hiring. I think."

"You _think_?" Santana asked. She leaned up against her car to take some of the stress off her shaky legs. She was never going to_ Cycle Fever_ ever again. "Is their Marketing department hiring? You know I'm in Marketing right?" Santana didn't want to get excited over a prospective job opportunity only for Kurt to tell her the opening was in Finance or something.

"Yea, I know. I mean, I'm kinda friends with their Marketing person and she mentioned that they were looking to hire new people. But I don't know if she meant now…or in the future…"

Santana looked at him. "That's kind of vague."

"I know." He said. "I could see if there's an actual open position. Yea. Let me do that and I'll let you know next week."

Santana nodded and started rifling through her purse. "Here, take my business card if it helps. You can give it to your Marketing 'person'." She handed him her card. "What company do you even work for anyway? You said it was some corporate business company?"

Kurt happily took her card and tried to hold it carefully between two fingers so it wouldn't get ruined by his sweat. "Oh, it's called Market Connections Initiative. It's on Third Street by the-"

Santana cut him off. "YOU WORK AT MARKET CONNECTIONS INITIATIVE!?" She felt her jaw drop, not even caring how dumb it may make her look.

"Uh…yes?" Kurt answered, alarmed at Santana's outburst. "Why?"

Santana put her hand on her forehead. All this time, she had been working out next to a guy that worked at one of the top Marketing companies in the world. "Do you KNOW how hard it is to get a job there?! My friend, Max, who went to _Harvard_ couldn't even get hired there!" Santana snatched her card back out of his hand. "You don't just go in for an interview there, you get _headhunted_. I heard it's one of the most difficult and extensive hiring processes, like, ever. Anywhere. You can't just give them my card!"

"Whoa. Calm down, seriously," Kurt told Santana. He furrowed his brows at her. He didn't know that MCI had enough credibility to make Santana react in such a way. He yanked her business card back from her, "I _told_ you, I'm kinda friends with their Marketing person. I can totally give this to her."

Santana just stared at him in horror. "Kurt, please don't. I didn't get headhunted for the job. That's the first requirement. Giving them my card would just make me seem like an idiot that was stupid enough to think she didn't have to abide by their rules. It'll be a complete waste of their time!"

Kurt shook his head and smirked at Santana. "You worry too much." He stuffed her card in his pocket and skipped away towards his own car, leaving Santana to only stare at him, still rooted in her spot. As he drove away he called out the window, "Let's do lunch on Tuedsay. I'll give them your card tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes!" With that he drove away, certain that his new friend deserved a chance at the job, if there was an opening. Surely Market Connections Initiative could use Santana. He knew she had graduated near the top of her class at NYU and had four years of work experience in Marketing. She was fiery and driven. Plus, it would be cool if they worked together. Maybe his friendship with the Marketing head would help him get Santana an interview, at least.

All throughout Monday, Santana could barely function properly at her desk. Her mind kept drifting off to what Kurt was doing. Had he given anyone her business card yet? What did they say? Did they accept it? Why wouldn't Kurt answer her calls? "Damnit Kurt." Santana tapped her fingers on her desk as she dialed his number for the seventh time. Her thirty minute lunch break was almost over. She had crammed her cold piece of pizza in her mouth twenty minutes ago and had reserved the rest of her time to talk to Kurt. He didn't answer the eighth, ninth, tenth, or even eleventh time.

After work she tried his cell again but there was still no answer. Her last-ditch effort was to leave a threatening voicemail for him right before she got into bed, which she did. If he didn't call her by tomorrow morning, she was sure he was trying to mess with her. She would really have to have a talk with him about timely call-backs.

To quell her nerves, she drank some hot chocolate and told herself that tomorrow would be another day. She hardly expected to get a job at MCI, but it was fun to dream. Maybe Kurt could work some of his magic. It sure got her to like him when they first met at the gym. She had found him completely unthreatening and really bubbly. She guessed that she was missing that in her life. All she had was her best friend Quinn, who was frequently unavailable due to her being a busy budding lawyer. Just for sake of trying, Santana dialed Quinn's number to see if the blonde was available but she got her voicemail. "Quinn, I'm freaking out. It's not an emergency so you don't need to call me back. I guess I just need someone to talk to. Maybe I should, like, buy a dog or something. I don't know. I'm just rambling. If you get this, just wish me some luck, will you? Have fun with all that law and stuff. Let me know if I'll see you this weekend. We haven't been to the club in two weeks and I think I'm going through withdrawal. Bye." She hung up at stared at her phone for another thirty minutes before finally giving up and plugging it into its charger. She drifted off to sleep thinking of missed phone calls, dogs, and finally leaving her dumb cubicle.

The next day, Kurt had texted Santana with a simple '_Meet me at Breadsticks at noon for lunch. Details then.'_ Santana almost tripped on the sidewalk while speed-walking to the place. "KURT!" She said, finally spotting him seated at a table in the sun on the restaurant's patio.

Kurt got up to hug Santana before she sat down. "Hey! Sorry I didn't get your calls yesterday. I had my phone on silent all yesterday because I had a huge headache that I think was from eating so much sal-"

"What happened? What'd they say?!" Santana cut Kurt off before he got into one of his health-conscious rants about salt-induced headaches. "Tell me, please!"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Sit down first at least, will you?"

Santana huffed and quickly sat down. She leaned forward, so much so that she could smell Kurt's fruity man-cologne. Or maybe that was his excessive amount of hair gel.

"Much better," Kurt told her, offering her a breadstick from the basket on their table, "Now, tell me, are you sore from _Cycle Fever _because I could barely walk yesterday-"

Santana reached out and grabbed Kurt's arm. "Yes. Sore. Hard to walk. Did you give them my business card?" She felt bad for cutting Kurt off yet again but she knew that he didn't know the true extent to which she hated her job or how a position at Market Connections Initiative would be the job of a lifetime for anyone in the Marketing industry. Surely he couldn't know because then he would understand why she was acting slightly insane.

Kurt huffed. "Ugh, you're impossible. Fine, fine. I gave them your card."

Santana searched his eyes for more information. "You did?" She asked, letting go of his arm finally.

Kurt nodded and broke a breadstick in half, putting on half in his mouth and the other on Santana's plate. "Yep. I gave it to my friend and, like I said, I wasn't quite sure if they were hiring exactly but I guess they are because you've got an interview this Friday."

Santana couldn't breathe. She was sure she had forgotten. Kurt gave her card to someone who didn't just throw it away? Someone at MCI _looked_ at her business card? She had an _interview_?

"Are you okay? You're not having a stroke or something, right? Helloooo?" Kurt snapped his fingers in front of Santana's face and watched her pick up her breadstick-half and chew on it. He frowned at her distant look and the way her distracted chewing produced crumbs all over her work blouse. He could tell it was expensive silk.

Santana ate her bread just so she had something to do with her hands and mouth that would prevent any flailing and screaming. She was _not_ the type of person who usually was stunned into silence but she needed to take a minute.

"Anyway…make sure to bring your resume and any type of project portfolio you have to the interview. I think it should only take an hour so you can get it over on your lunch break. I'm not sure who exactly will be interviewing you but my friend said come to tell the receptionist you're there for a Marketing interview and they would give you a guest pass and show you to the right office." Kurt took a sip of water and watched Santana absorb everything he had just told her.

Santana finally spoke her curiosity broke her out of her stupor. "Wait, so that's it?"

"What's it?"

"You just gave your friend my card and I have an interview…on Friday during my lunch break?"

Kurt shrugged. "Yea I guess. Don't be nervous. I bet the Marketing Department, which is where my friend works, is much better than my job. I have to follow the idiot CEO around and do all his tedious, pretentious tasks. Like shining the nameplate on his desk. Oh, this morning he had me take his Porsche to the car wash…can you believe that?"

Santana let Kurt go off on his rant about his boss. She really did try to listen to him but all she could think about was how she was going to _not _screw up the biggest interview of her life that she managed to get despite not being headhunted. She didn't really know how to feel. But she for sure knew that she was buying Kurt lunch. It was the least she could do.

For the rest of the week Santana stared at her resume on her laptop, typing and re-typing all of her previous work experiences, her skills, her qualifications, etc. She tried out different fonts, different font sizes, and aligned the words in different ways until she found a style she approved of. Everything had to be perfect. Her resume needed to shine. She hadn't gone to Harvard. She didn't have _that _much work experience and she was sure that there were a million other people more qualified than she was. But she wanted this job. It would be _amazing _to get this job. She had worked hard in college to graduate magna cum laude with a Marketing degree and a minor in Economics. She worked even harder after college to land her current job at Jacobson Inc., where she was the Marketing assistant to the Marketing Director who let her co-lead all of his big projects. Basically, she worked her ass off and got little to no credit for some of his big sales. They worked in selling their advertising campaigns to various sportswear companies. Santana was sure she had help come up with at least half of the many multi-million dollar ideas that the Marketing Director then got to present as his own work. She was ready for a change and she would do her best to fight for it.

On Friday, Santana almost spilled coffee on herself because of how badly her hands were shaking. She had done her best to pick out a suitable professional outfit, memorize how she would present her credentials, and learn as much about the company as possible. She had found out that Market Connections Initiative was actually under new leadership with its new CEO, Richard Brooks, only having been in the position for a year. The company had several different branches each being renowned in its industry for accruing mass amounts of revenue for the company as well as for innovation. Even the company employee-supervisor relationship was rated extremely high. Santana had also found out that the Marketing department, specifically, had won the coveted _Industry Blue Badge_ last year, signifying that MCI's Marketing Department was not only best in the state but best in the _entire United States._ Santana tried researching more about the possible people that may be administering her interview but found virtually nothing. It seemed a lot like the CEO, Richard Brooks, had taken credit for the _Industry Blue Badge_ win. Santana wondered what the person in charge of MCI's Marketing Department thought of that. She hoped it wasn't another company where no one got any credit except the Executives, even when they hardly contributed. She guessed that she would just have to wait and see.

Walking into the lobby of Market Connections Initiative, Santana felt incredibly intimidated. Not only was the building massive, but it was outstandingly decorated. Santana was sure that she looked out of place as she walked up to the receptionist's desk, dodging a few fast-walking, impeccably dressed individuals. Even the people here looked fancy. Santana felt like she was losing a bit of her nerve so she repeated her go-to mantra in her head. _You can do this. You're a valuable asset. You have ideas and experience. You will work hard and do great things._ She caught the attention of the receptionist and tried to make her voice sound more confident than she actually felt. "Hi. I'm Santana. Lopez. I'm here for an interview for the Marketing Department." She breathed a sigh of relief once she realized that she actually did sound pretty confident.

"Okay. Go through those doors and ask for Marsha Walters." The receptionist pointed to two gold-framed glass doors across the lobby on Santana's left. "She'll be conducting your interview."

"Thank you." Santana told the receptionist, who looked extremely busy but also calm. Santana wished she could be that type of person. Instead, pressure made her a bit nervous. Well, more than a bit. Even so, she mustered up the courage to walk with her head held high towards the ten-foot-tall doors and into the next room. She saw another desk. Clutching the folder containing her resume and portfolio tightly to her side, she approached yet another receptionist. "Hi, I'm here for Marsha Walters." Santana tried to make eye contact with this receptionist but the man didn't even give her a glance. All he did was press a button on his headset. Santana waited.

"Go right in." He finally spoke, his eyes still glued to his computer.

"Thanks." Santana told him, heading towards the only door left. There was no label on the door so she didn't really know what she was walking into. She only hoped that this Marsha Walters person wasn't too hard on her.

Upon entering the room and hearing the door close behind her, Santana took a deep breath. Marsha Walters, who she assumed was the woman at the desk at the back of the large room, didn't look too intimidating. In fact, Santana sort of found her rather friendly looking. "Ms. Walters?" Santana asked. She approached what she hoped would be the final desk.

"Santana Lopez." Marsha said, rising from her chair to shake Santana's hand.

Santana gave a firm handshake and sat down in the chair opposite the behemoth desk. It looked like an expensive wood but Santana couldn't tell. She placed her folder on the desk. "It's nice to meet you."

"You too. Is that your resume?" Marsha asked, reaching for the folder and opening it.

"Yes, and my portfolio of projects that I've worked on so far in my current position as Marketing Associate at Jacobson Inc." Santana gave her best smile and actually felt like she was off to a good start. She was feeling more confident by the second.

"Ok very good, let me take a look at this." Marsha began to run her finger down Santana's resume. She paused at the first few lines. "Oh, New York University, that's my Alma mater." The older woman smiled up at Santana. "Did you like it there?"

Santana felt a swell of confidence in her chest. This wasn't going badly at all! "I loved it there." She said honestly.

Marsha nodded, still with a smile on her face and began reading again. Every so often she would nod or say "mmmhmm" in approval of something that she read. However, right as it seemed Marsha was about to start the question portion of the interview, the relative quiet of the room was interrupted by a loud knock. Both Santana and Marsha looked towards the door to see who had interrupted but no one came in.

"I better go see who that is. I'll be right back, Ms. Lopez." Marsha said to Santana before walking to the door. She opened it and disappeared behind it before Santana could even see who had interrupted. Several minutes passed during which Santana sat in silence and wondered what was taking Marsha so long. Santana resorted to going over her answers to possible interview questions in her head just to be extra prepared even though Marsha seemed not too scary so far.

A few minutes after Santana had gone through her last interview question in her mind, the door opened. Santana turned in her chair ready to continue with her interview but it was not Marsha who came through the door. No, this woman was not Marsha at all.

"Santana Lopez." The mystery woman said, strolling into the room.

Santana could only watch, confused, as this new blonde woman waltzed into the room and took Marsha's place at the desk. "Uh…hello?"

"Brittany S. Pierce, nice to meet you." The woman stuck out her hand across the desk.

Santana was now able to see even more clearly the beauty of this person. Brittany Pierce, whoever she was, was gorgeous. Although she was dressed in jeans and a simple blue t-shirt, Santana was absolutely stunned. "Nice to meet you, too." She could only utter out this sentence in her confused haze. Where was Marsha? Who was this woman? _Holy crap she's really pretty._

"Is this your resume?" Brittany Pierce asked. She picked up the folder containing all of Santana's papers.

"Yes, and I included a portfolio of all the projects I have worked on so far in my current position as Associate-"

Brittany Pierce cut her off. "Ms. Lopez. Why are you here?"

Santana studied Brittany's face. Then she watched in total bewilderment as the blonde woman slid her entire folder across the desk in a perfect sideways line and right over the edge of the desk. She heard the _thunk_ of her folder and its contents hitting the bottom of a metal trash can. "What?"

Brittany Pierce then leaned forward on bother her elbows and repeated her question. "Why are you here?"

Santana was kind of pissed off now. Not only had she spent hours perfecting that folder of documents but who even _was_ this woman? Santana countered with her own question. "Why did you just throw my folder into the trash? My resume is in there-"

Brittany Pierce just smiled at Santana. "Ms. Lopez, I don't need to see your credentials nor do I need to see whatever projects you think give you any credibility for the job opening."

Santana gaped at the woman. "Excuse me, Ms. Pierce, but who did you say you were?" Santana asked this because, at this point, she was wondering if this woman was an escaped convict who had strangled Marsha and was going to strangle her next.

"Call me Brittany." The blonde said nothing more.

Santana didn't know what exactly she should do at this point. Thankfully Brittany started speaking again.

"You_ do_ know people get headhunted for positions at this company?" Brittany continued to stare her down.

Santana shifted nervously in her seat. Now her palms began to sweat. She still had no clue what this was. Was this part of the interview? "I do know." Santana just decided to tell the truth.

"And you decided you could just bypass that entire, professional, process and land yourself an interview?" Brittany didn't shift once.

Santana decided that Brittany didn't exactly look threatening. But she did look imposing. She _felt_ imposing. _Who is she?_

"You think you're better than everyone else?"

Santana scoffed, completely forgetting that scoffing was not at all professional. "Look, _Brittany_, it was my friend Kurt that got me this interview. I in _no_ way intended to imply that I was better than anyone else. To tell you the truth, I'm not exactly sure what's going on right now. Who are you? Where's Marsha?" Santana felt herself begin to go red in the face with the frustration of this baffling situation.

"You think you've got what it takes, Santana Lopez?" Brittany asked. She sat back in the wooden desk chair.

Santana frowned.

"Convince me." Brittany told her.

Santana began to mentally sort through all of her qualifications, wondering which ones she should start with. She wiped her palms off on her black skirt and cleared her throat. "I graduated from NYU with a degree-"

"Stop." Brittany interrupted.

Santana ground her teeth together.

"I don't care about what you did or what you're currently doing. I want you to convince me that you're the person that should be hired. We're looking for something that can't be found on a resume, Santana. Can you give me that?"

Santana was lost. What did this woman even want from her? What kind of interview _was_ this? Also, she still wasn't entirely sure of Brittany's mental stability.

Brittany finally spoke when Santana continued to silently stare at her in confusion. "How about this-"

Now it was Santana's turn to interrupt. She didn't prepare _all_ of this material just to be messed with by a crazy, although extremely pretty, blonde woman. So, she finally spoke up. "No, how about _this_: you tell me who the _hell_ you are, where Marsha is, and why I should tell you _anything at all._" Santana was beyond ticked off. Market Connections Initiative was supposed to be a reputable company; it was supposed to be one of the best in the world. Yet, here she was being interrogated by some random woman who was wearing street clothes and looked more like a model than an interviewer.

Brittany raised her eyebrow at Santana's outburst. "Aggression. Interesting. We can work on that."

Santana was furious. Not only were all her credentials overlooked, but Brittany was blatantly patronizing her. Santana had had enough. With one last scowl at Brittany Pierce, Santana stood up, walked to the door, and left. As soon as she shut the door behind her she was met with Kurt bouncing on his toes in front of her.

"How'd it go!? Tell me, tell me!" Kurt clasped his hands together.

Santana was surprised to see him there. She thought he would be off in a different part of the building. She overlooked that in favor of telling him about the weirdness that had just happened in the room behind her. "Kurt, this ridiculous blonde woman just came in and interrupted my interview with Marsha." Santana lowered her voice, incase Brittany could hear her through the door. "I think she's insane."

Kurt gasped. "Santana. Did you finish the interview?"

Santana was wondering why Kurt looked so worried. "What interview?" She pointed at the door. "_That_ was _not _an interview. I think there's actually been some weird mix-up or mistake or something." Santana couldn't even explain to Kurt what exactly had happened but she didn't like the look he was giving her. "What? Do you know that woman? She said her name was Brittany-"

"Pierce." Kurt finished. He put his head in his hands. "Santana. That was Brittany Pierce." He pointed to a plaque on the wall.

Santana looked at the plaque. She hadn't see it on her way in. It was a shiny silver piece of embossed metal on a wooden background. It read:

_Brittany S. Pierce_

_ Chief Marketing Officer_

Below it was the Market Connections Initiative company logo.

"What?" Santana asked aloud, looking from the plaque back to Kurt.

Kurt just sighed. "Brittany is the friend I was telling you about…" He waited for Santana to catch on. "She's the one who I gave your card to…the one who set up your interview. She also happens to be the Chief Marketing Officer."

Santana looked at him in horror.

Kurt winced. "She's also the CEO's daughter."

Santana felt faint. How could this have happened? How did this slip by her? Most importantly, _why _didn't Brittany simply tell her who she actually was?!

"Oh dear." Kurt said, looking at Santana. They both seemed unsure of what to do next.

"I yelled at her." Santana finally said, now mortified. She saw Kurt look behind her and heard the creak of an opening door.

Brittany walked out of the room. "Yes, you did yell at me."

Kurt was still standing in front of Santana, just looking between the two women. "I'm gonna…go. See you guys later." He turned abruptly and disappeared out the same gold-framed glass door that Santana had entered through.

Santana had no actual idea of how to proceed in this situation. She stood dumbfounded in front of Brittany S. Pierce, Chief Marketing Officer for Market Communications Initiative. Her brain was racing but her mouth wouldn't move. Thankfully, Brittany spoke instead.

"How about we try that again," The blonde asked, opening the office door and gesturing for Santana to follow her inside, "but this time with less hostility?"

Santana could nod and sit down on the same chair she had abandoned in her angry huff. _Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap._


	2. Please, Tell Me

Santana tried to keep herself as put-together as possible as she sank back down into the rigid-backed wooden chair across from Brittany S. Pierce. Now that she actually knew that the blonde-haired woman was the Chief Marketing Executive (as well as the CEO's daughter), Santana felt even more confused.

"So," Brittany said. She brushed her long blonde hair over her left shoulder. "Now that you're done storming out, let's get back to the interview."

Santana saw Brittany's body shift across from her as, she assumed, the woman crossed her legs underneath the desk. "First," Santana shifted so that she herself was more forward in her seat. Brittany felt imposing, and Santana needed to try and move herself so she didn't feel quite so _inferior_. "Tell me why I still have a chance."

Brittany raised her eyebrow at Santana in question.

"I just basically insulted you, accused you, and acted completely inappropriately…why would you give me a second chance? Especially if this," Santana gestured between them, "is not even the traditional way your company hires people."

Brittany shrugged. "Why do you think?" She asked, leaving a silence for Santana to fall into once again.

Santana tried her best to study the woman's face. She was usually pretty good at reading people but she could tell that Brittany wasn't just anybody. Now that she knew the blonde's position of power, Santana was even more mystified by her. "Well…it could be for a number of reasons, I guess." She kept her eyes even with Brittany's.

"Please share," Brittany said with a small flourish of her hand, "Let me hear what you think."

Santana figured that she had nothing to lose. She'd already basically crashed and burned so she may as well try and spend her time here wisely. Perhaps she could convince Brittany that she wasn't a complete imbecile after all. "Well," Santana began, "you could still have me here because you're good friends with Kurt. Although, that would be doing him a pretty big favor, because I don't think you two are even very good friends."

This time Brittany said nothing.

Santana felt obliged to explain. "Kurt and I haven't been friends for very long either but he never once mentioned you in more than an average work-friendship manner. Second, Kurt doesn't even know that much about what it is I do at my current job so he couldn't have vouched for me so much so that you would keep me here after I made myself look like a fool." Santana exhaled. "So, that's my first theory. And I just proved that one to have a high probability of being incorrect so…"

Brittany crossed her arms. "So lets hear your next theory."

Santana smiled. "The next theory I have is that you never had any intention of hiring me in the first place. You merely wanted to see me come in after _not_ being headhunted and make a spectacle of the arrogant pride you _assume _I have. So, you could just be keeping me here still to see how much bigger I make this whole mess."

Brittany tilted her head to the side. "So you _don't _have pride?"

"Not about side-stepping rules and professional policies that companies already have."

"Interesting." Brittany scooted closer on her seat. "Any other theories?"

Santana nodded and sat back in her chair. "Yea, a final one."

The blonde waited.

"My final theory is that, whether or not you were actually intending on considering me for hire in the first place, I've now at least got you intrigued and maybe…just maybe I still have a shred of a chance." Santana dared to keep Brittany's stare. The woman didn't seem to flinch at all which made Santana have a bit of inner-panic. She wondered which of her theories was correct.

"What if none of your theories are correct?" Brittany asked the dark-haired woman.

Santana just wanted Brittany to tell her what to do. She wanted the mysterious woman to give her some hint or explanation. Anything. "One of them has to be at least somewhat true. I'm here for _some _reason."

"Are you?" Brittany asked coyly.

"You tell me." Santana said. Her palms were getting sweaty where they rested in her lap.

"You're aggressive." Brittany said with narrowed eyes.

"And you're vague and passive." Santana retorted.

Brittany huffed out a small breath. "You don't know me."

Santana shrugged. "You're right, I don't. You don't know me, either. However, _Brittany_, you put up a good front."

This got the blonde's attention. "You're baiting me. You want me to ask what you mean."

Santana scoffed. "As if you aren't already a master of that yourself."

Brittany's jaw clenched. "Okay, Santana Lopez. You think I'm putting up a front?"

Santana just looked back at her. It seemed as if the air was having trouble moving through the tension between the two of them. "You are in certain ways. You don't like praise or recognition, but you _do _use it to your advantage. That sort of makes you a manipulator but not in a purely negative way. You don't trust people, so you probably don't have very many people who are close to you." Santana looked down at the desk. She couldn't believe she was continuing on with this. "You think you're incredibly hard to read, which you can be, but you're trying so hard to be opaque that you're spectacularly transparent."

"Watch where you're going here." Brittany warned.

It was the first verbal clue that told Santana that she may be hitting home. She may be getting somewhere. So, she powered on. "I'm not calling you transparent as in dull-minded and predictable. I'm calling you transparent in the way you present yourself. You're recently divorced, am I correct?"

Brittany's mouth fell open. "How…how could you possibly know that?"

"I don't know that," Santana told her, "But you just confirmed it."

"But how did you-"

"Your ring finger. You touched it when I mentioned you may be good at manipulation and that you may not have very many people close to you. That's a nervous tick that not many people have, with an exception of divorced individuals. Also, just now, you're blushing." Santana felt herself smile. Brittany was pretty, even more so with pink dancing along her cheeks. "You're blushing and…you've crossed your arms again so you're defensive about it. You're recently divorced and maybe…" Santana knew what she would say next would cross huge lines.

Brittany didn't stop her.

"Maybe you're the reason for the divorce." Santana uttered the words and saw Brittany's eyes drop to the desk before they flicked up and met hers with a warning glare. Bull's-eye. "So…your ex-spouse," Santana waited for any tells and got just the one she was looking for. Brittany brought her hand up and touched her collar bone. For Santana, who had seen that many times before, it was another bull's-eye. "You still are protective of your ex-spouse. Maybe you two even have a good relationship. Maybe you feel guilty for somethi-"

"Are these just more of your theories, Ms. Lopez?" Brittany asked, her voice smaller than before, but containing a sharp edge.

Santana shook her head. "Not theories. These are just tells, Ms. Pierce. You're telling me about yourself even without wanting to." Santana figured she was done for now. She figured Brittany was going to publicly exile her from ever working in New York after what she just pulled.

Instead, the blonde crossed her arms again but leaned forward once again. "What else can you _tell_, Santana?"

"I can tell you're a dancer. You got less than four hours of sleep last night. Oh, and that you've been in the hospital within the last 2-3 months." Santana finished and bit her lip, hoping that Brittany didn't hate her too badly for this.

"You're bluffing." Brittany studied Santana for a good thirty seconds, waiting for the other girl to admit anything else. "Tell me how you know all that-"

Santana saw the bewilderment in Brittany's eyes. "A magician never tells."

Brittany found herself barking out a loud and sudden singular laugh. This girl was too much. "Who _are_ you?"

"I'm someone who is extremely good at doing what she loves."

Brittany smirked. "And what's that? Exploiting people's weaknesses to gain the upper hand?"

Santana shrugged. "In a way, I guess. But not really. My job is selling things. Advertising. Convincing one person to buy another person's project for millions of dollars. My job is tailoring a presentation to fit a specific client so that my employer doesn't _lose_ millions of dollars. My job is to learn people. Learn their tells, know their weaknesses and soft spots, and then know how they'll react. I learn who they are, what they want, and how exactly to make a deal. It's all sort of the same game really."

"What is?" Brittany asked. Her hands were now perched on the desk. She tapped her fingers.

"Marketing. Selling. _Connecting._" Santana said. She studied Brittany, who didn't seem to hate her at all. "You do the same thing as I do, but in a different way."

"Do I?" Brittany asked.

"You do. I think you know you do."

"So what? You tell me personal, _private_ things about myself and I'm supposed to suddenly think you're the best thing on earth and that I would be stupid to not hire you? Is that what you think you've done with your little tricks?" Brittany asked Santana while still tapping her fingers along the desk.

Santana smiled at Brittany for what felt like a minute but was probably only a few seconds. "No, Ms. Pierce, that's not what I think I've just done." Santana took a slow deep breath through her nose. "What I _know _I've just done is proven to you that I can be an asset to your department and your company as a whole. I've proven that I go above and beyond to perform detailed work that will almost surely get you what you want every single time." Santana nodded at what she was saying. "I've surprised you and probably pried too deep, which I _am _sorry for, but I just did what you told me to do."

Brittany raised her eyebrow at Santana Lopez. "What I _told _you to do?"

"Yes." Santana confirmed. "I've _convinced_ you."


	3. We'll Work On It

Santana trudged up the stairs of her apartment building. She was paying such little attention to her surroundings that she entirely overlooked Kurt's presence in her hallway.

"Why so glum?" Kurt asked. He had been waiting for Santana for nearly twenty minutes. "Also, why so slow?"

Seeing Kurt unexpectedly in the hallway, right outside the door of her apartment, would have scared Santana more if she had gotten more sleep. Instead, she was sleep-deprived and therefore had no energy to spare for excess emotion. "What are you doing here, Kurt? And why are you carrying plants?"

Kurt looked down at the brown paper bag he was holding. "Santana," he said slowly, "you _asked_ me to meet you tonight. Remember…you texted me after your interview yesterday?"

Santana paused at her door with her key in her hand and Kurt staring over her shoulder.

"And these are not plants, its celery. I told you I would make you soup, remember?" Kurt shuffled his grocery bag for effect.

"Vaguely." Santana admitted. Yesterday was a bit of a blur, if she was being honest. After Brittany had politely ended their interview with a vague dismissal, the rest of Santana's day had been kind of muddy. She hardly even remembered her work day today. She hoped she didn't fall asleep at her desk, which felt like it could have been a possibility. "All she said was that she'd be in touch, what does that _mean_?"

"What?" Kurt asked. Santana had finally opened her door and Kurt was able to follow her in and set down his bag. "Who?"

"Who do you think?" Santana snapped. "_Brittany."_ At this point, she remembered why she had even asked Kurt to come over tonight in the first place. She hadn't seen him after her interview yesterday and had texted him to visit her tonight so that she could go over what had happened. "Kurt, _how_ could you do that to me?!"

"Whoa," Kurt responded quickly to Santana's mood shift by putting some space between them, "how could I do _what _to you?"

Santana discarded her purse by her front door and kicked off her shoes before turning her full attention to the man now perched on the back of one of her arm chairs. "You set me up for an interview with your _friend_ and you don't even think to mention that your _friend_ is _the_ Chief Marketing Executive?! I crashed and burned! I made a fool out of myself _and_ probably insulted her in a million different ways!" Santana began to pace a short line across her living room rug. Here came the anxiety again.

Kurt didn't back down. He had only seen Santana angry once before and that was at the gym when someone dropped a barbell on her foot by accident. He might not have known her for long but he _did_ know she had a lot of fight inside her slight frame. However, he was not guilty of the crime she was accusing him of. "_First _of all, Brittany wasn't even supposed to be there. I guess she got back from her business trip to Boston a whole day early so that's not my fault. Secondly, she wasn't even supposed to be doing that interview."

"What?" Santana asked. She was beginning to get another headache.

"Two days ago, Brittany was just the Marketing Head. She authorized your interview but it was Chad Bigby that was the CME. How was I supposed to know she had gotten promoted?" Kurt still didn't know the exact details and explained so to Santana. "Honestly, I don't even remember there being any news that Chad resigned. All I know is that your interview was supposed to be with Chad and then…suddenly there was Brittany."

"Suddenly there was Brittany." Santana repeated, simply for the sake of trying to process what her friend was saying.

"Am I off the hook?" Kurt asked. He tapped his foot impatiently. "Can I make the soup now? I'm famished."

Santana simply nodded her head and let Kurt wander off to rifle through her kitchen and cook things on her stove. For now, she just needed to take a minute to think. Even though Kurt's explanation gave her no answers, she felt better that he felt as confused about the situation as she did. Brittany had been the sole person she was thinking about for the past 24+ hours. "All she said was that she'd be in touch!" Santana shouted, hoping that Kurt could hear her in the kitchen.

"Brittany?" Kurt's voice responded, echoing off Santana's sparsely decorated walls.

"Duh." Santana muttered to herself. "Yea!" She yelled back to him. "She thanked me for interviewing and then just said that she'd be in touch."

Kurt popped his head around the corner, into Santana's living room, and saw her sprawled out on her couch, staring at the ceiling. "Well, that's not bad. Seems like you didn't crash and burn _too_ badly then," he joked, "at least she let you have a second chance." He went back into the kitchen.

Santana groaned. She didn't want to re-live that memory. "God. That whole interview was like a scene from my worst nightmare."

"Your text said that it didn't end too badly. Don't be so down on yourself." Kurt finally heard Santana walk into her kitchen a few moments later. "Brittany is pretty nice from what I already know of her-"

"How well _do_ you know her?" Santana asked. She picked up a knife and began to help Kurt with cutting up some more vegetables. "Like…tell me everything."

Kurt laughed. "Okay," He agreed, understanding how big of a deal this all was to his brunette friend, "Let's see…I started working at MCI about a year and a half ago. I think Brittany had been working there before I got there but I'm not completely sure. Anyway, one day about two months ago…around the time that I met you, actually…I bumped into Brittany in the lunch room. She was sitting alone at one of the tables and I decided to sit down next to her." He turned to Santana and saw that she had stopped chopping vegetables entirely and was now giving him her undivided attention.

"Go on," Santana told him. She was eager for more information on her blonde interviewer.

Kurt resumed chopping vegetables and tried to ignore the intensity of Santana's stare. "There's not too much more I can tell," Kurt explained. "After that first lunch we had lunch twice more and then I had to work on a small job for her and the CEO for one of their projects." Kurt shrugged. "That's pretty much it.

"What was the job?" Santana asked. "What else do you know about her?"

Kurt side-eyed Santana. "Finish chopping the celery," he told Santana, nudging her with his elbow. "The errand was just to be the slide-changer for a presentation that she and her uncle were giving for some Russian tech company. I literally sat there and changed slides on a projector for three hours. Brooks made me dress up for it too. Brittany bought me a coffee though."

Santana was confused. "I thought you said the errand was for her and the CEO."

"It was." Kurt answered.

"But you said Brooks was the CEO." Santana told him, remembering the info she memorized about Richard Brooks.

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows. "Her _is _the CEO," he explained. He scooped up all the potatoes and put them into the large metal pot he had brought along.

Santana huffed. "But yesterday, you said that Brittany was the _daughter_ of the CEO. Brittany _Pierce _and Richard _Brooks. _Obviously different last names…" Santana recalled the discrepancy in Kurt's story. She waited for him to explain.

Kurt frowned. "Well…she was…is."

Santana furrowed her brow.

"He died." Kurt said. He turned to Santana. "Her father was the CEO."

Santana was still confused.

"He died about a year ago. It was really sad. Back then I didn't know Brittany yet but I remember the entire company was really upset. I didn't know the guy personally. Back then I was also only the receptionist at the front desk but…yea. It was really sad."

"So…"

Kurt continued. "So then, Mr. Pierce's best friend took over. That would be Richard Brooks."

Santana watched Kurt put a lid on the pot of now-chopped vegetables. "So…you're kinda friends with Brittany, you work for the CEO who is Richard Brooks but a year ago used to be her father before he died and Brooks took over?"

"That would be correct." Kurt said. He washed his hands and handed Santana a beer.

"You didn't know that Brittany would be the one interviewing me because she only set up my interview?"

"Yes," Kurt answered, "and she was supposed to be in Boston another full day."

"And my interview was supposed to be with some Bigby person who _was_ the Chief Marketing Executive but Brittany somehow now holds that position?"

"Correct." Kurt answered and sighed. He thought Santana would make a great professional interrogator.

Santana thought for a moment. "So she was just the Marketing Head before this…and you have no idea why she's now the executive?"

"Yes, Santana," Kurt groaned. He dragged his hands down his face. "That's literally everything. I know nothing else." Kurt wandered into Santana's living room again. They had awhile to wait until the soup was done. "Just relax…I'm sure she'll call. And if she doesn't, then at least you gave it your best shot, right?"

Santana turned on her TV so that Kurt would be distracted while she obsessed about things some more. "Yea, guess so."

The rest of the week passed in a busy blur for Santana. On Friday, she got pizza by herself at her favorite pizza place, right down the street from her apartment. On Saturday, she was able to spend a few hours with Quinn. They spent their time drinking coffee and talking about nothing, which helped ease Santana's mind off of her job interview and how she hadn't yet heard from Brittany. On Sunday, Santana was sure that she hadn't gotten the job because Brittany would have called her by then. She expressed those feelings to Kurt while they suffered through an hour-long session of "calming" yoga. For Santana, sitting still was extremely difficult. For Kurt, it was the new yoga outfit he had purchased, which was squeezing him in "all the wrong places".

So, on Monday morning Santana went back to work with a new determination. She would shrug off everything that had happened at Market Communications Initiative and continue looking for a job. However, she _needed_ to quit her current job as soon as possible. Santana figured that she had enough money saved up that would allow her to take a comfortable month off while she looked for her next job. She decided to put in her two weeks notice at lunch. She would finally be free of her cramped cubicle.

When her one o'clock lunch time rolled around, Santana steeled herself to approach her boss. She figured it would be relatively easy to give her two weeks notice because she never did like her boss. But, it still made her nervous. She was going to take a real leap of faith in herself by quitting but she felt that she deserved it. She needed a change and she was going to get it. At least, that's what she kept telling herself as she exited the room that held all of cubicles.

"Going somewhere?"

Santana was much more than surprised by the voice that came from her left, a space just next to the stairs which was usually empty. "Holy shit!"

Brittany chuckled. "Sorry to catch you off guard," she spoke to Santana softly, "you're on your lunch break, correct?"

"Where…Brittany? What are you doing here?" Santana's hand was still locked on her chest, as if her application of pressure would still her erratically beating heart. "How did you know where I work?" All Santana could think to do was ask questions.

"And here I thought you knew _everything_," Brittany said slowly. "I looked at your resume, Santana."

"Oh. So you fished it out of the trash, huh?" Santana didn't know why she even dared to get cheeky with Brittany S. Pierce, possible employer and mystery woman extraordinaire. Santana didn't even know why the woman was here. Surely, Brittany would expect such nonsense to come out of her mouth by now. Still, Santana would be embarrassed about it later.

Brittany smiled. "Something like that."

Santana frowned.

"So, would you like to come to lunch with me?" Brittany asked, gesturing to the stairs.

"You came to my work to ask me to see if I would eat lunch with you?" Santana asked skeptically. She ignored Brittany, who had already put her foot on the first stair down.

Brittany turned back toward Santana. "No. I came to your work to get you because we are having lunch," she looked at her watch, "at the Diaggio and the reservation is in ten minutes. I'm not really asking."

Santana still stared at the seemingly-unfazed blonde woman. "And what if I had plans?"

At this point, Santana made a mental note to research things to do to shut her mouth up. It seemed to be betraying her at every turn. At least it did when Brittany was concerned.

"Then you would cancel your plans." Brittany answered. Her hand was still on the railing and she began to descend the stairs again, turning away from Santana.

Santana looked down at the short letter of resignation that was folded in her hand. "But-"

"Missing this lunch would be such a shame," Brittany said, "Seeing how it's the next stage of your interview process."

Santana's eyes flew open. She stuffed the letter in the back pocket of her dress pants. "The next stage?" She asked, quickly following Brittany down the first steps.

Brittany's voice easily floated up the few feet separating the two women as Santana followed her down. "Congratulations, Ms. Lopez. You've passed the first stage."

Santana tried her best not to trip. Especially if tripping down the stairs meant falling in front of Brittany and possibly even falling _into_ Brittany. She tried her best to keep any stupid things from coming out of her mouth this time. All she decided was appropriate was a polite "Thank you."

"Don't get too comfortable yet, Santana." Brittany said. She held the door open for her at the bottom of the stairwell.

Santana passed Brittany and walked into the cool sunlight of a New York September afternoon. She waited as Brittany joined her on the sidewalk.

"You're only moving on to the next round because I couldn't decide what to do with you."

Santana just followed beside Brittany as the blonde power-walked down the sidewalk. She didn't know what to think about what Brittany had just told her but it didn't sound too good.

"You're neither here nor there and I've never given an interview like yours," Brittany said. She hailed a cab at the corner of the street. "Frankly, if I never met another person like you for the rest of my life, that'd be fine with me."

Santana frowned deeply and followed Brittany into the yellow taxi that almost screeched to a halt for them as soon as Brittany had outstretched her hand. Santana figured that, if she were a cab driver, she'd stop quickly for Brittany as well. She buckled her seat and caught Brittany touching her left ring finger out of the corner of her eye. She wondered why the blonde seemed to do that so much. "I'm slightly insulted," Santana admitted.

"I just mean that you're a real piece of work," Brittany told Santana. She then mumbled to the cab driver the address of the Diaggio.

"Still insulted." Santana told Brittany, just as politely as Brittany had spoken to her.

Brittany brushed some of her long blonde hair over her left shoulder. "Don't be insulted…necessarily."

Santana raised an eyebrow. Brittany sure had an interesting way of conducting a conversation.

"You _are_ a piece of work. I never said I wasn't willing to work on you."


	4. Spicy Pepper

Brittany S. Pierce hated restaurants simply for the fact that she hated people waiting on her. She didn't like someone trying to attend to her every need because she could never tell if the person was genuine or if the person just wanted a good tip. It felt too much like the corporate world. She figured that waiters themselves, the good ones anyway, might even be able to pull off the large-scale deals that her father had had been so good at. If there was one thing that Brittany liked about restaurants, it was seeing how _other_ people reacted. Brittany always followed by the idea that _"someone who is not nice to a waiter and who _is_ nice to _you_, is not a nice person"._ Brittany found this saying to be correct one hundred percent of the time, so it ended up being how she judged many of her acquaintances. She never befriended someone who was rude to wait staff. She never even associated with people who were _more_ than rude to wait staff. Brittany herself could never find it within her to be mean to a person, let alone a person who had to do a crappy minimum-wage job like being a waiter at a restaurant. She figured she would take fake-niceness over anything else.

Santana wondered what Brittany was thinking about as she sat across from the blonde at a completely un-secluded table at Diaggio. Santana also wondered why Brittany had reserved the table that sat smack in the middle of all of the restaurant's foot-traffic. She felt like she was getting bumped into by a waiter or brushed past by another patron every other second.

"Uncomfortable?" Brittany asked Santana, seeing the other woman flinch as a man passed closely by the brunette's chair.

Santana pulled her elbows closer to her sides. "I feel like I'm in everyone's way," Santana admitted. She attempted to scoot her chair in further.

Brittany just observed the woman across from her. Santana had on a silk-looking dark purple blouse with tight fitting black dress pants on. Brittany thought Santana looked overly dressed for the restaurant, which was simply a glorified pizza place, but then again, so did she. Santana wasn't the only one still in her fancy work clothes. "You're not," she said, right as a waitress bumped into Santana's chair.

"Oop, sorry." Santana told the waitress. She reached her hand out to the girl, who was carrying a large pitcher of soda. "Got it?"

"Yea, hun, thanks." The waitress thanked Santana and continued on her route to another table.

Brittany couldn't help but smile. Santana was certainly not the first person that Brittany had taken to Diaggio. However, she _was_ the first person that Brittany had ever seen look so apologetic for simply sitting at a table. Brittany's thoughts were interrupted by an unmistakable cloud of cologne.

"Brittany! Your back," Marco said, swatting Brittany on the arm with a flour-coated hand.

"Marco!" Brittany immediately turned in her chair and swatted the man back. "I told you to quit doing that." She brushed the excess flour off her forearm.

Marco held up his hands in defense. "My bad." He turned to Santana as Brittany brushed off her arm with her napkin. "Who is this lovely lady? A friend? I've never seen her before." Marco flicked his kitchen towel over his right shoulder and crossed his arms, giving Santana a large smile.

Santana smiled back. Marco reminded her of her little brother. He was tall, loud, and immediately friendly. "Hi." She greeted him and gave him a nod.

Brittany finally looked up at Marco who was blatantly checking Santana out. "Hey." She said, swatting him on his arm. "She's interviewing here," Brittany saw Marco cringe, "but can we get some water?"

Marco ignored Brittany's water request, still keeping his eye on Santana. "She's a toughie, this one," he said and pointed at Brittany. "You let me know if she gives you any trouble and I'll rescue you. We can leave her at the table and maybe go have our own lunch over there," he told Santana. He pointed to a secluded booth in the corner.

"She doesn't want to date you." Brittany told him. She rolled her eyes.

Santana raised an eyebrow at Brittany.

Brittany raised one back.

"Actually, I was just thinking how much you remind me of my little brother." Santana admitted to Marco, offering a smile.

"Ouch." Marco said. He put his hand over his heart. "That hurts. Water coming right up, Brittany and…" He looked to Brittany.

"Santana." Brittany told him, realizing that she never introduced Santana properly.

"Water coming right up, Brittany and _Santana_." Marco made an over-dramatic flourish with his hand and raced away.

"Sorry about that," Brittany told Santana, "He's an old family friend and I take a lot of people here…he's just never been so…_friendly_."

Santana shrugged. "He's nice."

Brittany changed the subject. "So you have a little brother?"

Santana nodded. She didn't quite know if this was part of the interview or not. She figured it was just Brittany being curious so she answered. "Yea. Diego. He's twenty three. He's following in my dad's footsteps and is in medical school right now."

"Impressive." Brittany said.

"Do you have any siblings?" Santana asked the blonde. She watched Brittany carefully as her blue eyes locked quickly onto her own. Was that not a good question to ask? Santana didn't get to find out.

"Your water, lovely ladies." Marco placed a large pitcher on the table in front of him. "Are we ready to order?"

"Thank you," Brittany told him, her eyes still locked on Santana. I'll have the number three."

Santana noticed that Brittany hadn't even looked at a menu, suggesting just how many times she had been to Diaggio. "I'll have the same."

"You didn't even look at the menu." Brittany quickly said.

"Neither did you." Santana answered back.

"Because I've been coming here for years." Brittany said.

Marco looked between them, unsure of what was happening.

Santana shrugged. "I'm not a picky eater."

Brittany tilted her head to the side. "What if I ordered something you hate?"

"Is this part of the interview?" Santana asked, meeting Brittany's head tilt with her own.

"No."

"Then why the interrogation?"

"Why'd you order the same thing as me?" Brittany had to know.

"Why must you question everything?" Santana answered.

Marco took their menus and disappeared to put in the orders. Lady drama was not his cup of tea.

"Don't you even want to know what you'll be eating for lunch?" Brittany reached for the pitcher and poured ice water into her glass.

Santana shrugged again. "I figure you've been here enough to know what's good and what's not. Plus, I like surprises." That was a lie. She really didn't.

"No you don't." Brittany said.

Now it was Santana's turn to be skeptical. "And you know that how?"

"Because when I surprised you at your office you almost tripped down the stairs." Brittany answered.

"I did _not_ almost trip down the stairs," Santana told the woman. She waited until Brittany was done pouring water to pour some into her own glass.

"Whatever you say," Brittany taunted, taking a sip of her drink.

Santana put down the pitcher and took a sip of her own.

"You really don't care what you're going to eat?"

Santana shook her head.

Brittany sighed. "Carter."

"What?" Santana asked.

"Siblings." Brittany explained. "You asked…I have one brother. His name is Carter."

Santana nodded. She wondered why Brittany was suddenly biting her lip. "What does he do?"

"He works at MCI. Like I do."

Santana could only wait for Brittany to continue, but she didn't.

"What do you do in your spare time?" Brittany suddenly asked Santana, trying to be hearable over the constant restaurant-noise surrounding them.

"Is _this_ part of the interview?" Santana asked.

Brittany smiled at Santana. "Maybe."

Santana had just gotten done explaining her hobbies to Brittany when Marco came back with their food. Santana watched as a large plate of pizza was placed in front of her, as well as a large order of french fries.

Brittany tried to discern Santana's reaction to their identical orders of food. She hoped Santana didn't mind spicy food. Then again, Santana could have actually looked at the menu first…

"Jalapeños?" Santana asked. She watched Brittany pick up her slice of pizza and take a big bite.

Brittany's stomach growled in appreciation as she finished her first bite and felt the burn of the jalapeños on her tongue. "Problem?" She asked. She wiped her mouth with her napkin and looked at Santana, wondering what the brunette would do.

Santana smirked. "Nope."

Brittany watched, and tried to mask her wide eyes, as Santana took a bite even bigger than her own. She wondered if the brunette was just putting on a show.

Santana let the greasy pizza slide down her throat. Immediately, she felt the increasing spiciness coat her throat. Apparently Brittany was waiting for some reaction from her. At least, that's what it seemed like since the woman was watching her so intently. But, Santana didn't give in. Instead, she just took another bite.

"Not too spicy?" Brittany asked, after seeing that Santana was still eating.

Santana made sure that she swallowed her food before she scoffed. "Hardly." She wiped her hands on her napkin. "My abuela used to make this chile soup that my family called _volcano soup_. She used six different kinds of chilis, tobasco sauce, red pepper flakes, and a little bit of cinnamon, amongst other things. So…no, not spicy."

Brittany huffed out a small laugh. "I'm glad. Your abulea sounds like she knows how to do spicy."

They continued to eat their food in silence, occasionally stealing a glance at each other across the table. Santana was waiting for Brittany to ask her more questions and Brittany was waiting for Marco to stop staring at both of them from the restaurant's bar across the room. When they were both finally done with their pizza, both women wiped their hands on their napkins again and Marco came to collect their empty plates.

"How was it, _Santana_?" Marco asked, spending a little extra time collecting Santana's plate.

Santana smiled at him. The pizza had been delicious. "Very good, thank you."

Brittany frowned. Marco was frustrating her a lot today. "_I _thought it was a bit dry. Could have used more sauce."

Santana tuned out as Marco started scolding Brittany for doubting his world-famous pizza recipe. While the two were bickering, Santana got the chance to observe Brittany a little more. In their initial meeting, all of her observations had been on a survival basis, in order to save herself during the interview. However, now that she had a little time, Santana really looked at Brittany. It was too obvious to say that the blonde was stunning. Brittany had incredible cat-like eyes that were as blue as any sky Santana had ever seen. Her hair was so golden that it seemed to glow even in the light of the small restaurant. She was gorgeous in an obvious way. But, Santana saw more than that. She easily saw the way Brittany held herself in her chair with a dancer's perfect posture. Santana saw the small scar on her left wrist that, in her interview, had given her the clue that Brittany had been in the hospital recently. That scar was much too pink to have been from an old wound. Santana also saw the slight looseness of Brittany's expensive-looking shirt. The brunette figured that the blonde was either wearing someone else's shirt or that she had recently loss some weight. Another thing about Brittany that Santana couldn't help but notice was that Brittany was a nail-biter.

With Marco long-gone, Brittany had had the amusing pleasure of watching Santana stare at her for the past thirty seconds. She wondered when Santana would realize that she had been caught. Actually, Brittany was rather appalled at how blatantly the brunette was staring at her. But, Brittany couldn't be offended because, unlike men who would usually stare at Brittany's breasts, Santana seemed to be looking at her…hands? Strange. "You've passed stage two."

Santana's eyes shot up to Brittany's. How long had she been spaced-out? She hoped Brittany hadn't noticed her staring. "What?"

"I said, you've passed stage two."

"Of the interview?" Santana asked Brittany while the blonde left a $50 bill on the table and stood up.

"Yep." Brittany said, waiting for Santana to get up as well.

"But…I didn't even do anything." Santana called after Brittany's retreating form as she followed after the blonde.

"Didn't you?" Brittany said coyly, holding the door open for Santana and following her out into the sun.

Santana was probably more confused by this interview process than ever before. "Has anyone ever told you how confusing you are?"

"Sure." Brittany said, stepping down from the curb to hail a taxi for them.

Santana rolled her eyes. Brittany was obviously not going to help her figure out the puzzle. "Okay then."

"Okay then." Brittany smiled at Santana.

"Where are we going now?" Santana asked while getting into the taxi that, just like before, stopped for Brittany very quickly.

Brittany told the cab driver the address of the Market Communications Initiative building before buckling herself up and turning to Santana. "I'm going back to work and so are you."

Santana wanted to groan. "So…that's it then?"

"That's it, then." Brittany parroted.

Santana wondered if Brittany knew how frustrating she was being. Even so, Santana had had a relatively good time at lunch with the woman, mysterious as she was. "Thank you for lunch," Santana told her, trying to meet Brittany's eyes again, "I liked that pizza a lot."

Brittany shrugged and couldn't help but smile at Santana. "Thanks for passing stage two."

Santana narrowed her eyes at the blonde. "You're welcome. Even though I'm not sure what the criteria was…" she mumbled.

Brittany barked a laugh. "I like you," she admitted. She felt her chest flood with her fondness for Santana. There was just something about her. Brittany couldn't exactly put her finger on it, but Santana was just someone she found herself liking more with the increasing time they spent together.

Santana tried to conceal her surprise. She didn't quite know how to answer that so she was just honest. "Thank you." She smiled back at Brittany. "I like you, too."

Brittany dared to hold Santana's stare for a second. "Good. But don't think that means I'll be easy on you in stage three. Things are only going to get harder and I don't want you to get soft on me."

"I wouldn't dare." Santana smirked. "By the way," she asked, "how many stages are there exactly?"

Brittany bit her tongue in thought. "I don't know yet."

"Okay," Santana said, "however many there are, I look forward to completing them."

"Don't get cocky."

"I'm not," Santana told Brittany, "How could I ever be cocky when you make the rules and guidelines so vague that I'm confused by everything that happens?"

Brittany was enjoying this, maybe too much. They had arrived at the MCI building. Brittany paid the driver and told him the address of Santana's work building before looking at the brunette one last time. "I'll be in touch."

Santana gave Brittany one last smile. "Of course you will."

Brittany winked at Santana before shutting the door and walking away before the cab left the curb. She didn't want Santana to see just how much she was smiling.


	5. When It Rains

Santana stepped out into the gloomy evening, tired from a day of work. A stormy sky and rolling thunder met her by surprise. She groaned and looked at the rain in annoyance. She didn't bring an umbrella or raincoat today.

"Tell me something…do you check the weather?"

"Jesus Christ!" Santana shouted. Brittany had literally appeared out of nowhere.

"Also, hi." Brittany added.

"You're terrible at greetings." Santana said over the sound of the pounding rain on the pavement.

"What I lack in tactful greetings I make up for in rain coverage." Brittany said, smiling from underneath her umbrella.

"Huh?" Santana was already confused and Brittany had barely been with her for a minute.

Brittany just smirked and pointed to the waiting car with black windows. "Get in?"

Santana thought it was comical how Brittany phrased her demand as a question. Or was it more of a request…? Santana honestly couldn't tell. "What if I had my own car?" Santana asked while following Brittany to the black car parked at the curb of her office's building.

"You take the train." Brittany told the brunette while holding the umbrella over both of them while her driver opened the car's door. Brittany followed Santana into the back seat.

Once inside the car, Santana studied Brittany, who looked completely dry despite the downpour. Santana herself was dotted with large wet spots. She patted her hair, sure it was already beginning to frizz. "Wait…" She said. She stopped fixing her hair. "How'd you know I take the train?"

Brittany just ignored her question and handed her umbrella to her driver. "Take us to the library," Brittany told him.

"The library?" Santana asked. "Why are we going to the library?"

Brittany couldn't hold back her smile. "You'll see."

"Is this stage three?" Santana asked. It had been two full days since she had last seen Brittany. She supposed this was stage three. It had to be. There would be no other reason that Brittany would whisk her away. Out of the blue, like always.

"No."

"No?"

"Yes." Brittany said. She settled into her seat next to Santana. She was trying very hard not to look at the other woman.

"Yes what? Yes _no_, or yes _yes_?

"What?" Brittany asked. Santana sure was a confusing woman.

Santana flicked a raindrop off of her wrist. "God. You're difficult."

Brittany frowned. "Do you talk to all of your possible future employers that way?"

Santana blushed but answered honestly. "No." She sniffed. "Just the insufferably confusing ones." With that, she looked out the window as the rain-soaked New York streets passed by.

Brittany just drank a mini bottle of complimentary water and looked texted on her phone until the car arrived at the library. She then waited for the driver to open her door and hand her the umbrella before she turned and helped Santana out of the car. She tried hard not to focus on Santana's hand in hers for the brief moment that Santana used her for support in exiting the vehicle.

Once they made it inside, and Brittany had left the umbrella with the receptionist, Santana looked at what Brittany was wearing. It looked like the blonde had just come from a workout. She was wearing spandex pants and an incredibly tight tank top underneath her thin cardigan.

Brittany sensed Santana looking at her clothes. She knew she was dressed curiously for what they were currently doing. "Sorry, you caught me during a run."

"What do you mean _I _caught _you?_" Santana asked. _"You're_ the one that showed up and kidnapped _me,_ remember?"

Brittany laughed. "Look, I only get specific breaks of time in my day during which I can conduct these interviews. I just managed to double-book myself today."

Santana found herself following Brittany through stacks of books. "Question…" she whispered.

"Answer…" Brittany mumbled while still leading Santana towards the back of the library.

Santana wondered where on earth Brittany was taking her. "Do I have competition? Can you tell me how many other people you are currently interviewing for the position?"

Brittany didn't look back at Santana. She wondered if she should lie, tell the truth, or answer at all. "Four," she decided to say, "There are four of you I'm interviewing in total."

Santana got a sinking feeling in her stomach. She wondered how she was doing comparatively. Even though she had gone through two stages she considered the first one not her best work and the second one as barely existing. "And can I ask what stages they are on?"

Brittany had lied to Santana. There was only one other person that she had interviewed for the same position that Santana was interviewing for. Although, Brittany had been sure to keep the actual title of the position as vague as she possibly could. "They are on stage four."

Santana's stomach sunk again.

Brittany had lied again. The other interviewee was only on stage two. His name was Blaine. He was ivy-league, had a successful career after college, and was absolutely charming. He had done really well during his interview and his credentials were honestly much higher than Santana's. However, there was just something about the brunette. Something that Blaine didn't have. It was something that made Brittany not want to give up on Santana. Brittany didn't want to give up on Blaine either so she was going to see how far he made it as well.

"Stage four, huh?" Santana said.

Brittany stopped at an enclosed room. She fished a key out of her pocket, opened the door, and let Santana in.

"What is this? A conference room?" Santana asked, once they were both inside the room. It was all floor-to-ceiling windows on one wall. The rest were plain white with book-related decorations.

"It's my media room." Brittany said, sitting herself down in one of the chairs.

"_Your_ media room?" Santana asked.

"Do you ever stop asking so many questions?" Brittany asked Santana, who was still standing.

Santana was unsure whether she should be standing or if she should sit down like Brittany. "If you weren't so vague I wouldn't have to ask them," Santana told the blonde.

"That's fair." Brittany said. "Okay," She began. She patted the seat next to her so that Santana wouldn't continue to stand. It was making her nervous.

Santana sat down and faced Brittany once she placed her purse on the table next to her.

"Stage three begins now. Officially." Brittany tied her hair back up in the ponytail it had originally been in when she was planning on actually running.

Santana was glad that Brittany was officially announcing the beginning of stage three. Maybe now she would actually be aware of being interviewed, unlike stage two. She still wasn't sure exactly when during their pizza lunch that stage two had been completed. Maybe Brittany had just done it to psych her out. Santana was reaching her limit with frustration. She had never met a more evasive person in her entire life. It didn't help that Brittany was the type of person that made Santana want to know everything about her.

"Begin."

Santana managed to roll her eyes through her panic. "Begin what?"

Brittany laughed. "I'm just kidding. I'm not THAT vague."

Santana let out a breath of relief.

"Stage three is all about putting you outside your comfort zone."

Santana didn't want to admit that just _being_ around Brittany put her pretty far outside of her comfort zone. She watched as Brittany suddenly took out her phone.

"Melanie, you can send him in now."

Santana wondered who the hell Brittany was talking to, or about. Thankfully Brittany said something.

"You're about to meet a very good friend of mine. I'd like for him to not know that you're interviewing for me, okay? So don't mention it. Just do your best."

Santana was completely confused but agreed. "Okay." Now she was more nervous than ever.

Suddenly, the door opened and a man with dark hair walked in. He looked young and like he owned a lot of hair gel.

"Santana," Brittany said, "This is Blaine."

"Nice to meet you," Santana said, looking from Brittany to Blaine. She was far enough away from him that moving to shake his hand would be awkward.

"And Blaine," Brittany said, "This is Santana."

Blaine nodded and waved at Santana in greeting.

"Blaine," Brittany turned to speak to him, "Can I speak to you in the hall for a moment?"

Santana watched as Brittany followed Blaine out into the hall and the door was closed. She prepared herself for whatever was coming next.

Out in the hall, Brittany spoke to Blaine in a hushed voice because they were in a library after all. "So, Blaine, that's my good friend Santana that I told you you were going to meet today."

Blaine nodded his head.

"So for stage two," Brittany handed him a folder, "I need you to try and get her to agree to building an extension of Market Communications Initiative in Paris."

Blaine nodded hesitantly but took the folder.

Brittany continued. "Everything you need to know is in this folder. She's looking to invest millions and we need her to take this project. However, if you can't convince her that Paris is the place to go, figure out somewhere else. But, I would really like a Paris branch because we have a lot of business in France."

Now Blaine looked scared.

"Take your time, okay?" Brittany wanted to make sure Blaine wasn't feeling _too _much pressure. "Don't worry about messing this up," she told him, "Santana is under the impression that you're new at the company and that if she had any issues then she can come to me."

Blaine felt out of breath. "Okay. I'll do my best."

"Good." Brittany said. "Why don't you take five minutes to look over the info and I'll call you in after that."

Blaine nodded again, opened the folder, and began to read.

Meanwhile, Brittany went back into the media room, where Santana was waiting patiently. "Hey," She greeted.

"Hi." Santana said, looking to Brittany for what was next.

"So," Brittany began, "For stage three, I need you to convince Blaine to fund an extension of Market Communications Initiative to be built in London."

Santana looked at the thin folder that Brittany had just slid in front of her.

"Everything you need to know is in the folder."

Santana began to look through the information.

"Now," Brittany added, "Blaine is looking to invest millions and MCI does a lot of business in London so it would be great if you could get him to agree to this deal. But, if you can't get him to agree to London, get him to agree to someplace else, okay?"

Santana looked at Brittany with wide eyes. Surely the blonde wasn't about to blindly trust her with a multi-million dollar deal?

Brittany saw Santana's look of disbelief. "Don't worry, he's under the impression that you're a new employee at MCI. So he knows that if he has an issue, he can come talk to me."

Santana felt her hands shake. "Okay."

Brittany smiled at the brunette. "Okay then. Take a minute to look over the info, take your time, and do your best."

Santana gave a nod before pouring over her information.

"And remember," Brittany said, "Don't tell him that you're not actually an employee, okay? Try not to get into anything remotely personal. Stick to business."

"Okay," Santana said again and looked at the folder while Brittany disappeared out the door again.

Outside the room, Brittany told Blaine that Santana was ready for him. "Oh, and remember not to let her know that you're not actually an employee. Just stick to business, nothing personal, oaky?"

Blaine nodded.

"Let Santana know that I'll be right outside if she needs to speak with me. You too, I'll be right here." Brittany patted the lounge chair outside the media room.

"Okay." Blaine said as he opened the door and went inside.

Brittany sighed. This was probably the most intricate sneaky thing that she had ever done. She was kind of proud of herself. Now she had her two prospective interviewees in one room, competing for the same thing. Whether they decided on London or Paris would conclude who was the better deal-maker. Plus, it would all happen without either one finding out who the other was. And Brittany could just sit back and wait for the result.


	6. What You Already Know

I'm so glad you all are enjoying this little imagination journey of mine! The idea came to me while I was trying to sleep and I just had to put it into words. Thank you for the support so far and feel free to check out my other story, South for the Winter!

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Brittany had bugged the room. Santana had realized that while Brittany had been outside talking to Blaine. Santana had noticed the oddly placed pot of flowers on the table and had wondered why they were placed so far out of reach of the sun streaming in through the huge windows. This had led Santana to move the flowers further along the table, to allow them sun exposure. In doing so, she had felt something hard and metallic between the leaves and had searched the pot. She was quickly able to find what she recognized to be a small microphone with a dull, almost imperceptible, red light. Concluding that the microphone was on and was placed in the room for a specific reason, Santana became even more confused. Was Brittany listening? If she _was_ listening, what did that mean? Santana had carefully placed the plant back where it had originally been on the table. She figured she could always ask Brittany later.

Once Brittany had left Santana and Blaine alone in the media room, she checked her phone for any missed calls or messages. Once she listened to a few business-related calls, Brittany looked at the weather for the upcoming week and saw that it was supposed to be rainy for the next couple of days. She figured that she would need to wear better shoes to work tomorrow.

"Brittany Pierce, where have you been for so long?"

Brittany looked for the voice over her left shoulder. "Mrs. Bernard, how've you been?!" Brittany hopped up from her chair and gently brought the older woman into a hug.

"I haven't seen you here in ages!" The woman exclaimed. She hugged Brittany back and held the blonde at arm's length.

"Sorry, Mrs. B, I've been pretty busy."

"Work?"

Brittany nodded. "I got promoted, so everything has been a bit crazy these past two weeks."

"Brittany, that's wonderful!" Mrs. B told her, trying to express her congratulations in a hushed library-appropriate voice.

"Thank you," Brittany said, "Once everything calms down, I'll make sure to come around more I promise."

"Well, you should," Mrs. B said with a smile, "I _am_ your favorite librarian."

Brittany smiled brightly. "You're my _only _librarian."

Mrs. B swatted the blonde on the arm. "Even more reason that I'm your favorite and you shouldn't forget about me."

"I could never!"

"So…you've got that room of yours occupied?" Mrs. B pointed to the media room that was reserved in Brittany's family's name.

She nodded. "Yep."

"Who's in there? Your brother?"

Brittany shook her head. "Prospective employees," She said proudly. "We need another person in the marketing department so right now I have the two candidates in there going through an interview process."

Mrs. B nodded. "Should I even ask?"

Brittany winked at her.

Mrs. B had known Brittany, and her family, for at least five years. In that time she had come to know Brittany as a sly go-against-the-flow type of person. Brittany was always concocting plans and getting her way. Mrs. B was used to Brittany's mind being ahead of everyone else's. She was also used to Brittany constantly pulling tricks on her brother, Carter, during meetings that the family had held in that very media room. Mrs. B just liked that with Brittany, there was always something new.

"Let's just say I've pitted them against one another, they're being secretly recorded, and I'm kind of rooting for both of them."

"You don't ever like to see anyone lose." Mrs. B patted Brittany's shoulder.

"They're both really great candidates." Brittany shrugged. "They're both super smart, talented, and have a different way of doing things."

Mrs. B just nodded. "So, other than that…how are things?"

Brittany looked at her. "Things?"

"Carter…your mother…other _things._" Mrs. B saw the fingers of Brittany's right hand making contact with her left ring finger.

Brittany kept her smile. "Carter's great, he's just dealing with signing the company contracts that will hand the business over to him, officially, this winter. Mom's doing better. She's still in Italy visiting with my Aunt Lisa. Things are good."

"And you're love life?"

Brittany's smile fell. "I don't have a love life." She answered as honestly as possible.

Mrs. B frowned. "Sweetie," She said, reaching out for Brittany's hand, "One stumble shouldn't keep you down forever."

"More like a fall…down a flight of stairs." Brittany mumbled.

Mrs. B sighed and patted the blonde's hand.

"Anyway," Brittany said, "I'm just being cautious. I'm focusing on myself."

"Just for now though, right?" Mrs. B asked. "You can't keep your heart locked away forever."

Brittany just nodded. "Maybe just for now. Maybe for the next ten years." She looked away from Mrs. B. "But," she turned and gave Mrs. B her best smile, "You'll be the first to know when I find someone special."

"I better be!" Mrs. B told her. She patted Brittany's hand once more before letting go and saying goodbye to Brittany.

After Mrs. B had gone, Brittany sank back down into her chair and connected the audio feed from the conference room with her phone's Bluetooth. She plugged in the earphones, put them in her ears, and sat back to listen. She hoped that Santana and Blaine were at least making some progress.

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"I just think that London's business district would be more effective."

"Effective, how?" Blaine asked. He was having an impossible time convincing Santana that Paris, the city of love itself, was the right place for the new branch of MCI.

"It has all of the novelty that tourists want to see."

"So does Paris." Blain answered.

"London has the river and those cute little red telephone booths." Santana was wondering how Blaine hadn't come to this meeting more prepared. Why was he looking to invest millions in a project that he seemed to know little about? Why was he pushing Paris so hard?

"So you're basing this on cute novelty items?" Blaine asked.

Santana sighed and briefly glanced at her folder. "Let me reiterate the fact that Harrods is a huge department store that's pretty famous in London. MCI has direct connections with the CEO of Harrods. There could be a huge alliance forged within the city _if _the new branch was put there."

"Paris is the beautiful city of _love_," Blaine told Santana, "it doesn't get any better than that!"

"But love has nothing to do with marketing…or with the business that MCI would be conducting there." Santana was trying hard to not blatantly ask Blaine why he was fighting her so hard.

Blaine grit his teeth. "Paris has the Eiffel Tower".

"London has the London Eye, the River Thames, and double-decker buses." Santana licked her dry lips.

"The cost of building space _and _transportation would be cheaper in Paris," Blaine stared Santana down.

Santana sighed and looked at her folder again. Blaine was right. However, Santana was glad that she had visited London before, ten years ago. It at least gave her some feeling of advantage. "Building and transportation money doesn't really matter."

Blaine balked. "How could that not matter?"

"Market Communications Initiative is a national company. A _successful_ national company that has been working globally since its inception. Their whole _thing_ is bridging gaps and connecting markets. Paris is for fashion. London is for business." Santana felt her stomach grumble. She was getting hungry for dinner, which she had usually eaten by now.

Blaine was getting increasingly frustrated. "Paris has a better nightlife."

"Now you're just pulling at straws." Santana said. "London has cobblestoned streets, Buckingham Palace, and Big Ben. It's got all of the appeal and none of the nonsense. It's a business-driven city. Cost may be higher, but I'm sure it would be worth it. The River Thames feeds _right into_ the heart of the city. You _know _that would cut MCI's shipping costs by half. All of the products and projects that are based out of their New York location could easily be transferred. If buyers were looking to hire MCI for say, a start-up company selling cheap product, having the new branch in London would be incredibly appealing financially."

Blaine flicked through his folder one last time.

Outside, Brittany was chewing on her fingernails while listening to the audio feed through her headphones. She and her brother had talked about the London/Paris issue for over a week but they hadn't even considered the fact that London was near an easily accessible waterway. She felt incredibly stupid for overlooking that.

Inside the media room, Blaine tried a last ditch effort. "England is basically an isolated island. Customers and consumers would _have _to get their product transported by ship cargo."

Santana nodded. "But, Paris is equally as isolated. It's far from the coast, even if it's not an island."

Blaine frowned as Santana began to speak again.

"I just think London has the most to offer. It literally has everything. Every business professional that MCI has to fly in will get to experience top-rate accommodations in an amazing city. The _City of Love_ is not often everyone's cup of tea." Santana said.

Blaine sensed some bitterness in Santana's last remark. "But-"

"London's underground metro system covers almost double the area that Paris's does." Santana crossed her arms and looked at Blaine. "London's got the technology industry that's already booming and ready to expand even more. Market Communications Initiative uses technology _exclusively_ to get in contact with all of its clients worldwide. Why wouldn't they capitalize on that opportunity?"

"Paris is just as good!" Blaine discarded his folder on the table next to him, ready to get into it with Santana.

"London has lower tax, something that would benefit a large business…" Santana had no idea why Blaine was being so clueless. She was ready to excuse herself to talk to Brittany outside.

"I see what you're saying…" Blaine told Santana. He rubbed his forehead.

"Look," Santana said. She lowered her defense. "London would be the prime spot for innovation and development. It's easily accessible and one of the prime places in the world for a business to forge connections through an extension of its main branch. I don't think you can deny it anymore."

Blaine just nodded. Santana, whoever she was, really was wreaking havoc on all of his Paris ideas. He studied her determined face before deciding that she was ultimately correct about everything. "Okay. Okay. I agree."

They were both startled when Brittany opened the door.

"Hey, you two. How's it going?" Brittany didn't wait for them to answer. "Blaine, can I speak to you for a moment?"

Santana watched as Blaine gave her one last look of surrender before he got up and followed Brittany out the door. Once he was gone, Santana let out a long breath and rolled her neck. She was kind of glad for a break. Surely Blaine wasn't that good a friend to Brittany if he hadn't even done his research before proposing Paris as the place for the new MCI branch. No 'good friend' would propose to spend millions on a sub-par building location.

Five minutes later, Brittany came back into the small media room and sat across from Santana. "Blaine had to catch a taxi home."

"Oh." Santana said.

"Go on," Brittany said, "you've earned your bragging rights."

Santana raised an eyebrow at Brittany in question.

"You convinced him to go for London."

"London's just got what I think MCI needs. Paris is a great place but it's not what a business that thrives on connecting global markets really deserves."

Brittany bit the inside of her cheek and studied Santana, who was still holding eye contact with her.

"But," Santana said, "I'm sure I don't need to tell you how I convinced him."

Brittany furrowed her brow.

Santana pointed at the potted plant. "You were listening." She stated it as if it was a known fact but, internally, Santana didn't really know if Brittany _had _been listening.

Brittany tried to redeem herself. How had Santana known?! "No…"

"You're blushing," Santana told her, "so, yes."

Brittany found herself frowning slightly. "How'd you know?"

Santana didn't answer her question. Instead, she looked out the massive windows, at the still-gray sky. "You've been biting your nails again."

Brittany moved her hands off of the table and underneath it so Santana couldn't see. "Do you notice everything?"

Santana found herself smiling. "Blaine didn't know what the heck he was doing."

Brittany just waited.

"He kept tugging at his collar. You said he's a good friend of yours?" Santana asked the blonde.

Brittany sighed, but nodded.

"Clearly a lie." Santana said softly. She looked at Brittany again, who was staring at her with narrowed eyes.

"_Clearly_?" Brittany asked, mockingly.

"He looked nervous around you," Santana explained, "which is a characteristic that 'good friends' don't usually have."

"He's just a nervous person," Brittany tried to explain.

Santana was just playing with Brittany now. "Oh," she said, "and he got your last name wrong." She tried not to laugh.

Brittany's eyes widened and she internally groaned.

"He referred to your family as the _Piers _family when we first got to talking." Santana shrugged her shoulders. Surely Brittany didn't think she was _that _easy to fool.

Brittany stayed stone still.

"Also, Blaine didn't have to catch a taxi home."

"And you know that, _how_?" Now Brittany was getting defensive. She was beginning to think Santana was some kind of weird mind reader.

Santana laughed because she couldn't hold it in any longer. "I saw him get into his own car and drive away." She pointed to the large windows, which she had seen Blaine through a minute ago. Even though she was four stories up, she recognized his over-gelled hair instantly.

"You've passed stage three." Brittany grumbled.

Santana just smiled politely but inside, she was cheering. "Want to know something else?"

Brittany audibly groaned. "Whattttt?"

Santana got up and stood by the table right next to Brittany's chair. "You weren't really going to go running today."

Brittany opened her mouth in protest. "Yes, I was!"

"No you weren't." Santana said and reached forward. She rested her fingertips on Brittany's shoulder and brushed quickly along the shoulder strap of her skin-tight shirt. "Any woman who was about to go _running_," Santana leaned against the table and looked down at Brittany, who was staring at her in wonder, "would have worn a _bra_".

Once the blonde shook herself out of the trance that Santana's closeness had put her into, she had enough mind to quickly put her cardigan back on. It had been tied around her waist until now. Santana was completely correct. Brittany had told herself that she was going to run but really she had just been lounging around her apartment eating Doritos. "God," She said, "That's creepy."

Santana shrugged apologetically.

"I had even convinced _myself_ that I was going to go running. You're like…like a human _net!_"

Santana breathed out a laugh. "A human _net_?" She asked.

Brittany rose from her seat. "Nothing gets past you." She narrowed her eyes at Santana before sighing. Come on," She told the brunette, "Let's get you home."

"Aw, don't pout," Santana told Brittany as she followed the blonde out the door.

"I'm not!" Brittany said. She then lowered her voice to a more appropriate library-level once she got the stink-eye from a man reading a book a few feet away from her and Santana.

"You are." Santana whispered as they made their way back downstairs and through the last stacks of books before the main entrance. "You're not used to being challenged, are you?"

Brittany stopped just a few feet before the doors of the main entrance and turned around to face Santana. She shook her head. "I just…I'm usually the challenging one."

Santana nodded. She had hit the target once again. "So am I."

Brittany looked into Santana's eyes and ended up smiling. How could she not? The shorter woman was impossible. But in a pleasant way. Brittany found Santana refreshing.

"So…" Santana gestured to the main doors and followed Brittany out. "What's stage four?"

Brittany internally groaned. "You're not going to like it."

Santana waited on the sidewalk while Brittany made a quick call to her driver to come pick them up. "I'm not going to like it?" She asked, once Brittany was off the phone.

"Hell, even _I'm_ not gonna like it." Brittany told her. She held her hand out in midair to feel the sparse drops of rain that were still falling. It wasn't enough to be called rain but it _was_ enough for Brittany to worry about her hair frizzing. Especially in front of Santana, who seemed to look perfect despite the rain.

"You're not going to tell me what it is." Santana stated. By now, she was used to it.

Brittany shrugged and ushered Santana into the black car, once it had pulled up to the curb. "Trust me, it's better if you don't know."

Santana brushed some stray drops of rain off of the front of her shirt once she and Brittany were seated and buckled up. "Okay…"

Brittany gave her driver Santana's address before turning to face the brunette. "It mostly consists of me doing a lot of talking, you possibly getting insulted, and me defending your honor…and possibly lying about exactly what your _honor_ is."

Santana was more than confused. "Yea…maybe I shouldn't know."

"I wouldn't worry about it until it happens." Brittany admitted. She reached out and poked Santana's arm. "But you did great today. Thanks."

"You're welcome." Santana said. She looked down to where Brittany had poked her arm.

"I'm glad I don't have to fire you even before you're hired." Brittany grinned wickedly at Santana.

Santana grinned. "I think I'm more glad about that than you are."

Brittany tilted her head to the side. "Maybe," she answered.

Santana looked at Brittany's blue eyes for an extra moment. They were still so blue, even in the dingy light of the grey sky through the car's tinted windows. "So, can I expect you to kidnap me again?"

Brittany smiled and laughed. "How about this," She said. She held out her cell phone to Santana. "Why don't you put your personal cell phone number in my phone and I'll call you a day before I _kidnap_ you."

Santana took Brittany's phone and swiped her thumb to unlock its screen. She was startled by Brittany's background picture. It was Brittany with her arms wrapped around a man. An incredibly _good-looking_ man. Santana was sure that this mystery man could easily be a model. His blue eyes and light blonde hair stood out against the blue ocean behind him. However, all Santana could focus on were Brittany's arms wrapped around the man and how her stomach twisted uneasily at the sight. Santana tried to ignore the picture and quickly entered herself as a new contact into Brittany's phone.

"Thanks," Brittany said, reaching out to take her phone back.

"Oh, hold on." Santana quickly moved her hand back and re-opened the phone. She went right to the camera, smiled her most over-dramatic smile, and snapped a picture of herself.

"What _are_ you doing?" Brittany said, laughing at Santana's crazed-looking picture.

"Now you can put a face to a name." Santana said.

"A crazy face," Brittany said, finally taking back her phone.

"Hey," Santana objected, "That's just my natural smile. It's professional and my mother thinks it's _beautiful_." Santana teased. The picture she had taken had been anything but profession or beautiful. However, Santana felt that with Brittany, that was okay.

Brittany found her eyes locked onto the features of Santana's face. She looked at the way Santana's full lips rested slightly parted. She noticed the way Santana's eyes flitted back and forth between her own. "It _is_ beautiful."

Santana's breath caught somewhere between her lungs and throat. It felt like she had swallowed a pocket of air. The way Brittany was looking at her made her feel strange. But, not necessarily a _bad _strange. "Could say the same about you," Santana told the blonde. Santana had never offered up a compliment as easily as that before. She felt herself blush and had to look away.

Brittany smiled at Santana's words. She was interrupted before she could say anything back.

"We have arrived, Ms. Pierce."

Both Santana and Brittany looked at Brittany's driver.

"I'll see you when I see you?" Santana heard herself ask as she reached for the car's door handle.

"Soon." Brittany told her and watched as Santana gave her one last small smile and disappeared.


	7. Three Very Different Men

Santana had gotten the call. Late last night, at around nine, an unknown number had shown up on her caller i.d. She had answered with a hesitant greeting, expecting it to be just an unimportant wrong number. Instead, Brittany's distinctive voice answered her. Santana was glad to hear from Brittany after an entire week of waiting. She had put in her two weeks notice at her job the day after the conference with Blaine. So, Santana was hoping beyond hope that Brittany would hire her at the end of all this craziness.

Now, Santana was slowly walking to the MCI building. Brittany had told her to come up to the tenth floor conference room after checking in at the front desk. But, Santana had gotten to the building fifteen minutes early and didn't want to look too over-eager. She didn't exactly want to wait outside the building and risk looking like a crazy nervous person, so Santana decided she would just make her way up and be early. Early was at least better than late.

"After you," A man said.

He was holding the door open for Santana and she thanked him for the gesture. They both made their way to the front desk. Santana figured that the man was delivering something important because he had a clipboard, a box, and looked like some sort of business man. His hairdo was the only thing that confused her. It looked like he had a pet squirrel on his head.

"Santana Lopez," Santana told the front desk receptionist. The receptionist checked her in and told her to go right on up. As Santana was walking toward the elevator, she heard the man check himself in.

"Puck."

Santana couldn't help but listen as the receptionist seemed happy to see this 'Puck' person. Apparently 'Puck' had been here before because he joked with the receptionist a bit before making his way toward the elevator. He stood right next to Santana. They waited in silence until the elevator arrived and the doors opened.

"What floor?"

Santana stood at the back of the elevator, giving room to Puck because he was carrying the box and the clipboard. "Um, tenth."

"Oh," Puck said, "That's where I'm going, too."

"Ok." Santana said. She wasn't sure what the proper response was. She just hoped that he wouldn't look down her shirt. He had already done so twice during the twenty seconds that they had been in the elevator together. Maybe she should have worn a shirt that covered up her chest more. But, she really didn't own anything too conservative now that she thought about it. Santana tried hard not to roll her eyes at the way Puck was looking at her. Thankfully the elevator beeped, signaling their arrival.

"After you," Puck said, echoing the statement he had made at the main doors.

"Thanks," Santana grumbled. For some reason, she felt that he was enjoying the view. Once she walked down the hallway, Santana realized that she had no idea which room Brittany was in. There had to be about fifteen different possible options. She was caught up in her dilemma when she heard just what she needed.

"Britt!"

Santana turned her head in the direction of Puck's voice. He knew Brittany? Santana followed his voice.

"Forty gigs of banwidth," Puck said.

Santana stood in the doorway of the room that Puck had gone into. She watched as Puck held up the box he had been carrying. She saw Brittany got up from a desk to take the box from Puck.

"Thank you," Brittany said, observing the package, "64 gigs of memory?"

Puck nodded, "Just like you asked," he told the blonde.

During this interaction, Santana stayed still in the doorway, unsure of how to announce her presence.

Puck handed the clipboard to Brittany.

"And you'll have the other twenty of them delivered on Monday?" The blonde asked.

Puck bounced on his toes while Brittany signed the papers. "Yep! We're just engraving the last ten tomorrow and you'll have 'em Monday."

"Perfect," Brittany said. She handed the clipboard back to Puck and set the box on her desk. "Thanks for delivering it personally, Puck."

Santana wondered what kind of name 'Puck' was. Was it even short for anything?

"No problem, Britt. I know how you get with your tech stuff. You know you can trust me because I'm-"

"The best, yea yea yea." Brittany punched Puck in the arm. "I'll see you soon?"

Puck pointed at the box he had delivered. "On Monday," He confirmed, "Maybe we could grab some lunch?"

Santana, from the doorway, could see how Puck was clasping his hands in front of his face. He was begging.

Brittany laughed. "Fine."

"Awesome!" Puck said. He smiled at Brittany once more and turned around to leave. He made eye contact with Santana."Oh! You again."

"Me again," Santana said. She stood to the side of the doorway so that Puck could pass through but he stopped just short of leaving.

Puck smiled at her. "Britt, you've got a very pretty lady waiting for you,"

Brittany had just noticed Santana when Puck had moved to leave. "Santana?"

"Sorry, I'm a few minutes early." Santana said.

"I'll leave you two alone," Puck said. He threw a wink to Brittany. "Until we meet again," he said to Santana.

"Puck!" Brittany said.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Puck said. He gave one last smirk to Santana before leaving.

"Sorry about him," Brittany apologized.

"It's okay," Santana said, stepping into the room. It seemed to be simply a sparsely decorated conference room.

"He's my tech guy." Brittany said. She patted the box Puck had delivered. "He was just delivering something my brother ordered for all of the company computers."

Santana nodded. She wondered what the reason was for Brittany's light blush.

"Anyway," Brittany finally got a chance to look at Santana. The brunette was wearing a skin-tight gray pencil skirt with a silk-looking white blouse that was tucked in. She had red heels on as well as a thin, glossy red belt. Brittany thought Santana looked stunning. She wondered if Santana ever had a day that she didn't look this good. Brittany had yet to find out. "I was wondering how you'd feel meeting my brother today?"

"Carter?" Santana asked, recalling his name.

"Yep!" Brittany was glad Santana had at least remembered that she had a brother. "He's set to take over the company from that asshole, Brooks." Brittany's eyes widened. "Excuse me for saying that."

Santana smiled. "It's okay."

"But he really is an asshole," Brittany whispered.

"So your brother will run the company now?" Santana asked, not wanting to make Brittany feel the need to explain anything more about Richard Brooks.

"Hopefully soon," Brittany told Santana. She gestured for Santana to sit down at the large table with her. How did Santana's hair always look so perfect? She wondered if her own hair looked alright. "My dad was the CEO but, in his will, there was a segment that put the company in Brooks's hands if Carter hadn't gotten his Masters degree yet. Carter just graduated with his MBA this past summer, so he finally gets to take over."

"I'm taking you're pretty excited then?" Santana asked.

Brittany nodded. "You have no idea. It's been quite a difficult year."

Santana felt terrible for Brittany, now that she remembered that Brittany had lost her father only a year ago. "I'm sorry," She told blonde. Santana wondered if it would be inappropriate to pat Brittany's hand which was resting on the table so close to her own.

"Thank you," Brittany said. She could see the genuine sympathy in Santana's eyes. "But, even though dad's gone now, Carter is the next best thing. He's worked really hard to figure everything out and learn everything as quickly as possible." Brittany leaned back in her chair. She knew that she didn't _need_ to tell all of this Santana. Just, something about the brunette made her feel okay in doing so. "See, Carter didn't plan on inheriting the company until he was thirty five. He was only working in the Human Resources Department. Now he has to run this whole thing."

"How old is he?" Santana wondered aloud.

"We're 27," Brittany said.

"_We're_?" Santana asked, raising an eyebrow at the blonde.

"Twins." Brittany clarified. She watched as Santana's eyes widened slightly. "And, before you ask, _I'm_ the good looking one."

"I wasn't going to ask." Santana said, smirking at Brittany's joke. "And I'll be the judge of that myself."

Brittany raised a hand to her chest in mock-hurt. "Are you sure you want to risk your future employment on the possibility that you find my brother attractive?"

"Well," Santana said, "Men really aren't my _thing_, so he's kind of already losing." She studied Brittany's face for any reaction that her sexuality would impact Brittany's decision to hire her or not. She felt bold announcing her sexuality so suddenly, but Santana hoped it would be aliright.

Brittany felt her face heat up immediately. Santana was gay? Santana liked _women_? She could feel the silence getting bigger but she didn't know what to say. Thankfully someone else interrupted them.

"B?"

Brittany rolled her eyes and huffed. "In here!"

Santana took her eyes off Brittany only to witness a man walking in from the hallway.

"Hey, B."

Santana quickly recognized the man from Brittany's phone background. So it was her brother? Now that she saw both of them in the same room, Santana felt stupid for missing it in the first place. Their physical features were so alike that Santana actually found it a bit off-putting. 

"Hey Car, this is Santana Lopez." Brittany stayed sitting as Carter walked over to them.

"Nice to meet you. Carter Pierce," The blonde man said. He took a seat next to Brittany after patting her on the head twice.

Brittany looked disgruntled at her brother's gesture. Santana figured that they were quite close from the way that Carter was smiling at Brittany.

"Nice to meet you, too." Santana told him, after shaking his hand.

Brittany was watching Santana look at Carter. If she hadn't just learned that Santana liked women then she would have thought Santana was checking Carter out. However, she figured Santana was just observing him to see what she could tell from his gestures and words, just like she had done to her. Brittany made a mental note to ask Santana her thoughts after Carter had left.

"So," Carter said, after unbuttoning the single button on his suit jacket. He turned to Brittany, "Are you ready to do this?"

Brittany's shoulders dropped. "Not particularly."

Santana watched the two siblings have a silent conversation for a few seconds.

"You didn't tell her yet?" Carter asked. "B…"

Santana saw as Brittany shrunk under Carter's scrutiny. "I was trying to spare her!"

Carter laughed. "Well…tell her now and I'll go prep him."

Carter said temporary goodbyes to Brittany and Santana before leaving the conference room.

"Prep who?" Santana asked. "Blaine again?"

"No," Brittany said slowly.

"Tell me what?" Santana asked. Now she was nervous.

"Well," Brittany said. She could feel her pulse quicken. "The thing is, since Carter is still not yet in charge of things around here, I have to clear you as a new hire…with Richard Brooks."

"Oh," Santana replied. From the way Brittany was giving her an apologetic look, she figured that this process was not going to be something to look forward to. "And that's bad…?"

Brittany pursed her lips. "Uhm, not necessarily bad." She didn't know how to explain the process to Santana without making her nervous. "Let's just say he didn't know that I was hiring."

Santana furrowed her brow. "You didn't tell him?"

The blonde shook her head. "He would never approve."

"So…" Santana sighed. "Why am I here?"

Brittany frowned. Surely Santana didn't think that she didn't have a plan? "I'm going to hire you," Brittany announced, "so congratulations, but I'm not going to hire you on into the Marketing department. I can't do that until Carter is in charge."

"So you're going to hire me?" Santana was ecstatic. Had she really made it? Was she really going to get her dream job?

Brittany winced. "I'm hiring you as my personal assistant."

"What?" Santana asked.

"I have to." Brittany felt the words getting jumbled up in her head. "It would just be for a couple of months until Brooks is out. Then I can promote you into the position you are qualified for."

Santana was concerned about all of this. "You never actually said what that position was…"

"Oh," Brittany remembered her secrecy. "That's because, if you decided to sue me because of this for any reason, I could always use the fact that I never actually _told_ you the position to help my case."

Santana scoffed. "Rude."

"Just looking out for my company," Brittany answered. She smiled at Santana.

"Wait…then why are you telling me this now?" Santana asked. "Shouldn't you have waited until you hired me as your personal assistant?"

Brittany ran her eyes around Santana's face before responding. "Yea, technically, I should have. And I would have…it's just…"

Santana saw Brittany blush again. Her pause was another indicator that what she was going to say was embarrassing. So, Santana waited patiently.

"I just…never expected to find someone so quickly. I was planning on going through at least twenty candidates. But, then I found you. I really want you to take the job but I know you didn't sign on to be a personal assistant…" Brittany bit her lip. Was she even making sense? "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to do this the right way. I want you to have a choice. I don't want to blindside you any more than I already have. So, I need you to know why I'm doing all this."

Santana was stunned. It sort of sounded like Brittany…cared about her?

"So…it's up to you. The job of yours if you want it…" Brittany's heart had not slowed down one bit. She was eagerly waiting for Santana to say something. She hoped that the other woman wouldn't take this twist as an insult. Really, Brittany was just worried that Santana would walk out of her life and she would never get to see her again. That would be the ultimate negative outcome.

Santana wondered why Brittany looked so worried. "Brittany, of _course_ I'll take the job. I have absolutely no problem with you hiring me on as your personal assistant-"

"Just for now." Brittany reminded the brunette.

"Just for now." Santana repeated. "Honestly, working for this company is my dream job. So, I'll jump through as many hoops as I have to."

Brittany was trying to withhold her enormous grin from Santana, but it didn't work at all. "Yes!" She cheered. "Thank you, so much, you have no idea how happy I am that you agreed."

Santana laughed at Brittany's enthusiasm. But, her mood was dampened suddenly. She had to just clear one thing up before she fully agreed. "Before I sign anything…" Santana said, "I just wanted to be clear on the policy concerning my…_sexuality_," she didn't know why she ended up whispering. "I'm not willing to be prosecuted down the road because of something that I can't change."

Brittany shook her head vigorously. "Oh, no. Santana, don't worry about that at _all_. My father was an incredibly loving and open man, thank god. His company was built on acceptance, friendship, and making connections. MCI doesn't exclude _anyone_." Brittany smiled at Santana's expression of relief. "And, just so you know," Brittany felt compelled to put her hand on Santana's, so she did. "I am more than okay with everything about you."

Santana could feel the warmth of Brittany's hand on top of her own. She had the strongest urge to turn her hand over and have Brittany's fingers move against her own. "Thank you," She said softly. That was probably one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to her.

"And I hope," Brittany told the brunette, "that you can be okay with everything about _me_ because you _will_ have to be my personal assistant for the next few months."

Santana smiled. "I'm sure that I won't have any problems."

Brittany smirked. "Don't say that too soon, you haven't really _met_ me yet."

Santana realized that Brittany's hand was still on top of her own, so she slowly pulled back until they weren't touching. She crossed her arms and sent Brittany a smirk of her own. "Oh, _haven't _I?'

Brittany just smiled and shook her head, her hand still on top of the table where Santana had left it. "Just don't hate me when you're dealing with all the crazies that call me, getting my coffee, and handling my dry-cleaning schedule."

Santana clicked her tongue. "I have a feeling you're a person who is very hard to hate."

Brittany smiled wider and quickly stood up. "Hold that thought."

"Ready?" Carter said from the doorway.

Santana hadn't even heard him come in. Nevertheless, she followed the twins' lead as they guided her through the door, into the elevator, and to the fourteenth floor of the building.

"Okay," Brittany said, right after they stepped out of the elevator. "Remember, I'm hiring you as my personal assistant. Don't be insulted if he insults you and let me do all the talking."

Santana could only nod before Carter chimed in. "He's going to give you the final contract to sign. Make sure you just sign it, answer his questions, and then hopefully we'll be done."

"We?" Santana asked. "Questions?"

Brittany quickly pulled Santana to the side of the hallways while Carter hovered nearby. "Carter is saying that he is the one that hired you. In case I didn't already mention it…Brooks kind of hates me."

Santana opened her mouth to respond but Brittany interrupted.

"Don't worry about it now. Carter's gonna take you in there first. If he calls me in, then I'll come in after, but he might not."

Santana looked to Carter, who was trying to look like he wasn't listening to Brittany's conversation with her.

"You're in good hands, I promise." Brittany said.

"Ready?" Carter asked.

"I'm sorry this is so crazy," Brittany told Santana when they all were standing outside an impressive looking door that had a large _RICHARD BROOKS, CEO _on it. "I promise I'll make up for it somehow."

For some reason, Brittany's concern made Santana feel more comfortable. "Don't worry," She told Brittany. She felt like the blonde woman was the one that needed reassuring.

Carter gave one last smile to Brittany before opening the massive door and leading Santana inside.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"And you picked her yourself?" Richard Brooks asked Carter Pierce.

Carter nodded. Unlike his sister, he was on Brooks's good side. "I was the one that interviewed her and I liked all of her credentials."

"You of all people know that we don't need Brittany bringing any more trouble to this company," Brooks warned.

Santana wanted more than ever to know what on earth they were talking about. Brittany seemed like a person that couldn't cause _that _much trouble. Then again, maybe she didn't know everything about the woman, yet.

"I know, sir." Carter said. Richard Brooks was his father's oldest friend. However, unlike his father, Richard Brooks wasn't the greatest person when handed a great deal of power. He hated when Brooks insulted Brittany. But, Carter knew that he was Brittany's best line of defense. Although they both needed to brush it off now, soon Carter would be able to take over MCI, fire all of Brooks's people, and then Brittany would be free from the scrutiny.

"And are you sure that a _woman_ is the right candidate for the job?" Brooks asked. He hadn't once even looked Santana in the eye.

Santana wanted to kick him. Who did he think he was? Misogynistic pig.

Carter blushed, for the sake of his sister. "I'm sure, sir. She's the right person for the job."

Santana also wondered why Brooks would even be concerned as to who was hired as Brittany's personal assistant.

"As long as it won't end up like last time." Brooks growled. "This company does _not _need that kind of embarrassment."

Santana watched as Carter shifted uncomfortably underneath Brooks's stare. "I assure you, I've got everything under control. She will be a great personal assistant."

"If anything happens again, Brittany's gone." Brooks warned. "It's her neck on the line."

Carter nodded. "I agree."

"Good man." Brooks said.

Santana saw Brooks smile for the first time since she had been in his office. Brooks's smile made her skin crawl. She hated the way he was talking about Brittany. She didn't think the blonde, or anyone for that matter, deserved such treatment.

"Okay," Brooks said finally. "Young lady, please sign here and here." He handed Santana a stack of five papers.

The lines for her signature were dotted and highlighted so Santana did so quietly.

"Where did she graduate from?"

"NYU," Carter answered.

Santana figured that Brittany had briefed Carter on her resume in order to make this lie more believable.

"Police record?" Brooks asked. He looked to Santana this time.

"Of course not, sir." Carter answered.

Brooks laughed. "You said her name was Lopez?"

"Yes, Santana Lopez." Carter responded.

Santana wanted to groan.

"Any relation to the Massachusetts Lopez family?" Brooks took a cigar out of a case on his desk.

Carter shrugged. Then he looked to Santana in question.

"No…sir." Santana answered.

"Where are ya from then?" Brooks asked.

Santana knew Carter didn't know this so she answered. "I was born and raised in Ohio. My father's job took us to New York about fifteen years ago."

"Is he a traveling landscaper?" Brooks asked, laughing.

Santana seethed. She felt Carter shift uncomfortably in the seat next to her. "No sir, he's a cardiothoracic surgeon at New York Presbyterian." She saw Carter clench his fists out of the corner of her eye.

"Ah, a heart man." Brooks said. He smiled at Santana. "That's what my father did as well. Always came home late. Never saw him much," the man mused.

Santana felt herself still on edge. Did her father's profession make Brooks like her more? She doubted it. But, she would take what she could get.

"I'll see you at tomorrow's committee meeting?" Carter asked. He took the signed papers from Santana and handed them to Brooks in hope of getting out of the office as soon as possible.

"Yes," Brooks took the papers from Carter and ran a hand through his white hair. "Million dollar deals, sweetheart," He said to Santana. "Someone's gotta make 'em."

Santana tried to give him her most polite smile. Thankfully Cater was already gesturing for her to follow him out of the office. Santana was glad for an easy escape route. She stepped outside as Carter said goodbye to Brooks one last time. Then, he closed the door and they were done.

"How'd it go?" Brittany looked back and forth between her brother and Santana. Each looked a little tired. Brittany understood completely.

"He's…" Santana began.

"An asshole." Carter finished for Santana. "I'm so sorry you had to endure that."

"What happened?" Brittany pleaded for some answers.

"She handled it like a pro," Carter told his sister. He patted Santana on the shoulder. "I actually think he liked her."

Brittany looked at Santana in surprise. "For real?"

Carter smiled. "She's good at keeping her cool. If I were her, I would have punched the guy."

"That's how we all feel, everyday," Brittany told Santana.

"But it worked," Carter said as he walked Brittany and Santana to the elevator. "You're looking at your new _personal assistant._"

Brittany tried hard not to bounce up and down. "I knew we could pull it off. Thanks, Car." She told her brother.

As the elevator doors opened, out fell an extremely red-in-the-face Kurt.

"Kurt!" Santana exclaimed. He was carrying a full carton of orange juice and a large bag of chips.

"Santana!" Kurt replied. "Brittany, Carter, hi guys!" Kurt was sweating all over.

"What are you doing?" Santana asked, letting Kurt pass by her. He looked completely rushed.

"Brooks had a craving for orange juice and chips. So, I've gotta get these to him, pronto," Kurt explained, walking quickly down the hall."

Santana frowned. Poor Kurt. Now that she had met Brooks, she felt sorry for Kurt. Being that asshole's personal assistant did _not_ sound like a fun job.

"Santana, let's have lunch later this week?" Kurt asked.

"Sure! Go…" Santana said. She didn't want Kurt to be anymore late to Brooks's office than he had to be.

They all watched as Kurt nodded and disappeared behind the large office door.

"Poor Kurt," Santana voiced.

"He's the one that referred you, right?" Carter asked Santana.

"Yea," Santana told him, "He's too good for that job."

"I'll think about promoting him when I take over," Carter said.

Santana smiled. That would be great if she could help Kurt out as much as he had helped her out by giving her resume to Brittany. "I bet he'd love that."

Carter said his goodbyes and went in the opposite direction of the elevator. Brittany said that he had some other work to do on the floor.

"So," Santana said as she pushed the elevator button to go down, "What now?"

Brittany stepped into the elevator first. She waited for the doors to close. "Now, you're my slave."

Santana smiled at the blonde. She leaned to the side slightly and bumped Brittany with her shoulder.

Brittany finished laughing at Santana's gesture before she looked at the brunette. Santana was so beautiful. It almost wasn't fair. And she seemed entirely able to keep her cool with Brooks. Brittany didn't know how she did it. That man was infuriating. "Why do I feel like I've been your friend for years?" Brittany found herself asking. The words were sudden but the feeling was not. Having Santana fall into her life just two short weeks ago seemed like the best thing fate had done for her yet. The woman was intriguing. She was funny, gorgeous, and incredibly smart.

"I sort of feel like that too," Santana admitted. She stole a glance at Brittany's devastatingly blue eyes. "Maybe we knew each other in a past life."

Brittany hummed. She liked that idea. "Oh," She remembered right as the elevator brought them back to the lobby. She followed Santana out of the opening doors. "I wanted to ask you what you thought of Carter."

Santana turned around and leaned against one of the nearby lounge chairs. "Carter?"

"Yea," Brittany said, "What did you think of him?"

"He's great." Santana told her. "Really great, actually."

"What could you _tell_ from him?" Brittany asked, bringing up Santana's above-average observational skills.

"Oh," Santana said. "Well…he wears glasses, had his nose broken when he was little, he's been to the island of Santorini within the last three or four years, and he did a lot of fighting as a kid?" Santana was not sure if she was completely correct about the last one.

Brittany was, again, stunned. "What the hell…how did you _do_ that?" She was befuddled by Santana's ability to see more about people than anyone else.

Santana shrugged. "You really want to know?"

"Yes please," Brittany answered. She honestly thought Santana had a talent that bordered on being magic.

"Well…when he first came in, he had those two little marks by his nose. So, I know he wears glasses." Santana smiled at Brittany's enthralled expression. "My dad had to fix my own brother's broken nose so I know what it looks like when you _don't_ get it fixed properly or keep breaking it."

Brittany nodded. Carter had broken his nose more than three times when they were children.

"That leads me to the next point…his knuckles. They're completely scarred. They're old scars but they're pretty obvious if you know what you're looking for. That's how I know he fought a lot or did bare knuckle boxing when he was younger."

Brittany chewed on her lip. When Santana explained it, it sounded easier than she would have thought. "Wait, how did you know about Santorini?" It was almost impossible that Santana could know about their family trip two years ago.

Santana smirked. "Not telling."

"Aw, come onnnnn." Brittany whined. She took Santana's forearm in her hands and shook lightly. "Please."

Santana laughed. "If I tell you, I'd have to kill you," She said in a whisper.

Brittany pouted. "Not fair."

"Fine," Santana said. Brittany's pout could break anyone's resolve. "It's the background of your phone."

Brittany paused. She let go of Santana's arm to take her phone out of her pocket. Sure enough, her background was her favorite picture of her and Carter, with her arms wrapped around him, on the beautiful island of Santorini. "How…"

"When I put in my number I saw it." Santana explained. "You guys don't look too young so it was recent. And I'd know a picture of Santorini anywhere," She leaned over and pointed to Brittany's phone. "White walls, blue accents, and high cliffs? Definitely Santorini."

Brittany stared at Santana after putting her phone back in her pocket. "Have I told you that I think you're pretty cool?"

Santana laughed and pushed herself off where she was leaning against the chair. "No."

"Well, I think you're pretty awesome, Santana Lopez."

Santana could feel herself blushing. "Thanks, Brittany S. Pierce. I think you're pretty amazing myself." They both studied each other for a moment.

"So…" Brittany said, breaking the eye contact between them. "Are you ready to come to work here?"

"My contract Jacobson Inc. is officially done next Tuesday." Santana answered.

"Five days away. I can handle that." Brittany said, smiling at Santana.

"I'll see you then?" Santana asked. Brittany walked her to the front doors.

Brittany stepped forward and put her hand on Santana's arm. She figured she shouldn't hug Santana, so she went for the next best thing. "You'll see me then. I'll email you with any last details."

"Okay," Santana said. She turned to leave and heard Brittany's voice calling after her as she opened the door.

"Bye!" Brittany said as Santana disappeared. She was so excited for Tuesday, she wished it would come sooner. Surely, seeing more of Santana would be nothing but a good thing. Plus, they would get to work together closely for the upcoming months. Brittany hoped that she would get to learn even more about Santana during that time. Maybe they could even eat lunch together and talk more. Brittany walked back to the elevator thinking of all the questions she already wanted to ask Santana. She was so distracted that she bumped into the reception desk.

"Brittany!" The receptionist exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

Brittany laughed at her distractedness. "More than okay," she told him.


	8. See You Once, See You Twice

A lot of people have been asking me for longer chapters so here's my longest chapter yet! Sorry for the short break. Enjoy!

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Brittany S. Pierce wasn't exactly a fan of show tunes nor did she appreciate the operatic and incredibly loud voice of one Rachel Berry. "Kurt," Brittany whispered, "What on earth are we doing here? My ears feel like they're bleeding."

"Shhh," Kurt hushed Brittany, "she's magical."

Brittany looked warily at Kurt's awed expression. He actually _liked_ this woman's voice? Brittany was confused as to why. She was also confused on how exactly he found out about this little underground bar. "How do you know her, again?"

Kurt didn't take his eyes off of Rachel Berry. Her rendition of "Don't Rain On My Parade" was simply breathtaking. She had such an amazing talent. "She's the cycling instructor at my gym," Kurt whispered. "She invited me yesterday."

Brittany didn't know Kurt cycled. She didn't even know he had a gym membership. It was only recently that she started talking to Kurt more…ever since she had met Santana, actually.

"Look out for the other two."

"Other two what?" Brittany asked. Her words were muffled by Rachel's huge voice. She looked at Kurt for an answer but he was too focused on the performance to even register Brittany's question.

Not even two minutes later a voice whispered in Brittany's ear. "Brittany?"

Brittany turned around almost smacked her shoulder right into Santana's cheek. "Santana!"

The brunette laughed as Brittany was shushed by a nearby woman. "Hey!" she greeted.

"What are you doing here?" Brittany asked.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Santana repeated.

"Kurt invited me," Brittany answered. She pointed to Kurt beside her, hoping he would greet Santana but he was still focused on Rachel.

"Me too," Santana said. She had been invited to a "fun evening with drinks" by text last night. She had meant to see Kurt at the gym but instead had stayed home to relax. "What is this?" Santana asked. She hoped Brittany would provide some much needed answers.

Brittany knew Kurt wasn't paying attention so she took Santana by the elbow and guided the other woman through the dense crowd until they were outside. Finally, she had some peace and quiet.

Santana had followed Brittany without any question. She was glad that Brittany had taken her somewhere quiet to talk. Once the two were outside, Santana could see Brittany in the evening light. The blonde was wearing a simple outfit of tight jeans and a long-sleeved v-neck grey shirt. She had a thin necklace with a tiny star on it that drew Santana's eyes to Brittany's exposed collarbones. "You…look really nice."

Brittany grinned when she saw Santana drop her eyes to the sidewalk. She was just too cute. "Thanks," Brittany said. She looked at Santana, who was wearing a simple black dress and ankle boots to match. "So do you." Brittany wondered what Santana looked like in even more casual clothing. Maybe a sweatshirt or even pajamas. Probably adorable.

"Thank you," Santana said shyly. She wasn't sure how to act around Brittany outside of a professional work environment. Brittany was her boss. It made things awkward for Santana rather quickly. She cleared her throat and tucked an errant piece of hair behind her ear.

Brittany shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans. Santana looked nervous around her and it made Brittany panic slightly. She didn't want Santana to get weird around her now. Maybe it was just because of their unexpected run-in. "So, you know Rachel?" she asked, just to get Santana talking.

Santana scrunched her nose. "Who?"

Brittany pointed back at the door of the bar. "Rachel…the singer?"

"Oh, her name's Rachel?" Santana asked. She had seen the infuriating Hobbit on stage when she had walked in. "No, I don't know her. Kurt and I took one of her spin classes about two weekends ago. I didn't know she was going to be here…let alone singing." Santana scratched the back of her neck.

Brittany laughed. "Okay, good. Because then you won't mind me saying that I'm not a fan."

Santana smirked. "She's not _that_ bad…" Santana told the blonde. She saw Brittany frown. "I mean…compared to her as a spin instructor. I'd _much_ rather hear her squeaky voice singing a song than yelling at me to '_push through the pain and find my inner shining star'_". Santana laughed at her own joke. Thankfully, Brittany did too.

"She teaches a spin class?"

Santana nodded. "Yep. I went only once and told Kurt I'd never go back again. I was about to attack her."

Brittany hooked her thumbs on the belt loops of her jeans. "You? Attack someone? I'd pay to see that."

Santana's head moved back in surprise. "Hey, you have a lot to learn about me. I'm fierce," Santana pointed to her hair, "I've got razorblades hidden allllll up in there."

Brittany shrugged and smiled. "Dangerous." She scuffed her shoe on the sidewalk before looking back at Santana. "I like it."

Santana felt herself blush harder than she ever had. Brittany was too much for her sometimes. She was as unpredictable as she was charming. Santana found it incredibly hard to resist. She found herself wanting to be around Brittany much more than she should. Brittany was her employer after all. Sure she was effortlessly gorgeous, funny, and witty but Santana also knew that they had to keep some semblance of a professional relationship. She had to show Brittany that she was passionate about her work. She would have to show Brittany just how smart she was and what she could do. She didn't want Brittany to regret hiring her, not for a second. That's why Santana didn't exactly know how to respond to Brittany's words. With any other woman, Santana would shamelessly flirt back. But, with Brittany, Santana was conflicted.

"So," Brittany stated suddenly. "Wanna go back in there?"

Santana groaned.

Brittany lightly pushed her shoulder. "C'mon. This is my first time ever hanging out with Kurt and I want to make a good impression."

Santana had been wondering why Kurt had invited Brittany when the two didn't know each other very well. "Yea…about that…"

Brittany understood Santana's implied question. "Oh, we started talking a lot more once I had interviewed you. I thanked him for bringing me such a great candidate," she said, winking at Santana.

Santana blushed, again.

"We got to talking more about the bar scene and he told me about this place and said he'd let me know when he was going to go out next." Brittany shrugged. "I don't have very many friends so…"

Santana found that hard to believe. How in the world could someone like Brittany not have many friends? It seemed ridiculous. But, Santana didn't want to question Brittany about it so she stayed quiet on the matter.

"I'm glad he invited me, even though I'm not such a fan of Rachel."

"Nor am I," Santana chimed in.

"But I'm glad I get to see you. So, that's a nice surprise."

Santana nodded, averting her eyes at first. "Yea," she said. "Really nice surprise."

Brittany rocked back and forth on her heels. She was about to say something else when someone interrupted them.

"There you are!"

Santana turned her body toward the approaching figure. "Q! You're late. How _uncharacteristic_ of you," Santana joked.

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Shut up. I got tied up in-"

"Paperwork, yea yea yea," Santana drawled. She leaned forward and gave Quinn a one-armed hug. Then she remembered Brittany. "Oh, Q, this is Brittany S. Pierce," She pointed to the taller blonde.

"Your new boss, Brittany?" Quinn asked, recalling the name Santana had told her over the phone a few days prior.

"Technically, yes," Brittany answered, "But, outside of the office, just another regular bar-patron." She stuck out her hand to Quinn. Hopefully her words would hint to Santana that she didn't have to worry about ruining her reputation when they were outside the office. Brittany found that she liked Santana too much to _not_ get to know her outside of work.

Quinn shook her hand. "I'm Quinn Fabray, the best thing that ever happened to Santana and the person to which you should accredit all of her previous and future accomplishments."

"Oh my god, Quinn," Santana rolled her eyes. Santana turned to Brittany. "Sorry, she likes to think that _just_ because she's my best friend, she can take credit for everything _good_ that happens in my life."

Brittany snorted a laugh. Quinn seemed like a fun person so far. Plus, she was gorgeous. Brittany thought that Quinn looked like she was a movie star from the 1950s. She had pale skin, green eyes, straight blonde hair, and a voice that was incredibly alluring. She was glamorous in a very modern way. Brittany was interested and intimidated by Quinn.

"I _am_ everything good in your life," Quinn said dramatically. "I deserve a medal."

"You deserve a _watch_," Santana joked. "Lawyer stuff can't be _that_ hard."

"Speak for yourself, Lazy Pants," Quinn told Santana.

Brittany watched the two interact and could sense the closeness between them. She could tell that Santana let her guard down completely with Quinn. She wondered if they were dating. It sure seemed like it. She decided to stop guessing and get answers for herself. "So are you two…" She pointed back and forth between them.

Quinn's eyes went wide.

Santana's jaw dropped before she made a retching noise.

"Hey!" Quinn protested. She slapped the brunette on the shoulder. "You'd be _lucky_ to date me, jerk."

"She's straight." Santana told Brittany. She did _not_ want Brittany thinking that Quinn and she were even _remotely_ intimately involved. "Plus, we've been best friends for so long…that'd just be gross." She dodged another slap from Quinn.

"I'd never date S," Quinn told Brittany. "She has a serious issue with Italian food that I don't condone."

Santana blushed. That was embarrassing for Brittany to know. Her relationship with Italian food was private. "It's _not_ my fault that breadsticks are my life and that you can't eat gluten!"

Brittany smirked at Santana's fiery defense of something as simple as sticks of bread.

"Have you ever had breadsticks from Breadsticks, Brittany?" Santana asked the other woman.

Quinn rolled her eyes.

"Actually, no," Brittany answered truthfully. She had seen the place a few times on 8th avenue but had never gone inside.

Santana clapped her hands together. "You _have_ to go. You just _have _to."

Quinn groaned. "It's just _bread_, S"

Santana ignored her. One thing that she prided herself on in life was being a passionate advocate for Breadsticks. It was simply, the best. "They had it all over Ohio but when my family moved to New York, I had to give it up. They just opened the first one in New York last year," Santana told Brittany. She was trying to contain her excitement and not seem too crazy.

"They just opened it last year and I've already been there with her twenty five times. _Twenty five._" Quinn repeated. She didn't want Brittany to get sucked into Santana's vortex. "And that's not even counting the times she went by herself or got take out from the place," Quinn whispered.

Santana crossed her arms over her chest. Surely, she wasn't being unreasonable.

"Is it really that good?" Brittany asked the two.

Quinn just shrugged while Santana looked like she was having a life crisis.

"I'll guess I'll have to try it and see for myself," Brittany finally said. "Or…maybe we could all go some time?" Brittany thought it could be considered forward to invite herself into their friend group so soon, but she didn't really like waiting for things that she wanted.

"I'm banned." Quinn told Brittany. She saw Brittany's look of surprise and explained further. "Not by the restaurant itself, but by _Santana_." She elbowed her best friend in the ribs for effect.

"Santana banned you?" Brittany smiled widely at the brunette who was now frowning at Quinn.

"She complains too much!" Santana insisted. She looked to Brittany. "I just don't like someone disrespecting the best food in the world while I'm trying to enjoy it."

Brittany laughed aloud. "You guys are weird."

Santana suddenly felt embarrassed. She didn't want Brittany to think that she was weird. In fact, she _wanted_ Brittany to see her as both a person that she could be friends with as well as a person that could dominate in the corporate world.

Quinn laughed with Brittany. "So," She said, since Santana wasn't talking. "I've never met Kurt before, is he here?"

Santana nodded. Kurt had told her to bring a friend if she wanted and since Quinn was practically her only friend, she had been quick to call her up. "He's inside listening to the musical act which just so happens to be our cycling instructor at the gym. She is really loud. Her singing is not bad at all but, whatever you do, _don't_ take a class with her."

Quinn smiled. "Well, should we go in?"

Brittany agreed. "Yea, lets." She led the way back inside. Thankfully, Rachel Berry's singing was over. Now only a jukebox was playing.

"There you are!" Kurt said, once he spotted Brittany. "Oh, Santana who's this?"

"I'm Quinn," Quinn answered. She shook his hand and complimented him on his Prada shoes. They fell into an excited conversation about the new fall line.

"Whoa," Santana said. "I figured that they'd get along well but not _this_ well."

Brittany looked at Quinn and Kurt who, after only twenty seconds, were ignoring Santana and Brittany completely. She thought it was cute. "Aw, look how excited they are talking about clothes…"

Santana chuckled. "I'm gonna go get some drinks. Want to come?"

"Absolutely," Brittany answered. She followed Santana to the side of the large room, where the bar was located. Even though the place was packed and there was little to no standing room, Brittany watched Santana somehow weasel her way in-between people and catch the bartender's eye immediately. She frowned at the way the man was looking at Santana. She frowned more deeply when she saw Santana lean further over the counter. Was Santana flirting with the bartender?

"What'll it be, gorgeous?" The bartender asked Santana.

"Martini with a twist for me and…" She looked back at Brittany. She wondered why the blonde looked unhappy. "Brittany?"

Brittany shook herself out of her inner thoughts. "Uhm, I'll take a whiskey sour."

"And a whiskey sour." Santana told the bartender, with a wink. After she received the drinks and paid for them, she turned around and gave the whiskey sour to Brittany.

"So," Brittany asked as she and Santana stepped away from the thick crowd around the bar. "You do that often?"

"What?" Santana asked. She sipped her drink and looked at Brittany.

"Flirt to get what you want," Brittany nodded over to the bar.

Santana took another sip of her drink before answering. "Sometimes," She answered, noting Brittany's look of disproval. "C'mon, like you _don't _do it."

Brittany shook her head.

Santana sighed. "It's easy," she explained, "I give them what they want and I get what _I _want. Men are easy to please."

Brittany had to laugh. "You mean men are easy to _tease_."

Santana grinned. "Well, that too. And, hey, we got our drinks in record time." She gently guided Brittany to a patch of open space so her elbow wouldn't constantly be in danger of getting bumped. She was not about to spill a drink that she just paid eleven dollars for.

"Angry eyes!" A voice popped up beside Santana.

Santana was so startled that her drink sloshed in its glass, spilling over the rim and onto her fingers. "Shit!"

"Sorry!" Rachel Berry said. "I didn't mean to alarm you. I simply wanted to thank you for coming to my performance. It went really well, don't you think?"

Brittany cringed as she watched Santana's look of displeasure manifest to an even further extent. She interrupted before Santana could say anything. "Hi, I'm Brittany S. Pierce."

Rachel turned her attention to Brittany. "Hello!" She shook Brittany's hand. "Have you taken one of my classes, too? I'm sorry, I can't remember everyone that I teach. Spinning is so hectic…"

"No, no." Brittany told the short woman. "I'm just here with Santana." She pointed back to the angry brunette.

"Santana!" Rachel said, excitedly. "Nice to put a face to a name."

"Angry eyes?" Santana asked. She stared at Rachel.

"Oh," Rachel said. "I usually try to remember my students by a defining feature…and I remember you. You had incredibly angry eyes!"

Santana gawked at Rachel. She looked at Brittany to see that the blonde was currently trying to hide a laugh by sipping her whiskey sour. "I did _not_ have angry eyes!" She said adamantly.

"Yes you did…there, you're doing it again now," Rachel said, pointing to Santana's face.

Santana 'politely' smacked Rachel's hand out of her face.

Brittany laughed. "Your performance was great, Rachel. Loved your voice," She told Rachel just so Santana could regain some of her composure.

Santana shot a look at Brittany. She knew the blonde was lying. Rachel was oblivious. 

"Oh thank you, I know. I think I really outdid myself tonight!" Rachel said.

Brittany nodded. "And that fourth song…wow."

Rachel frowned. "I only did three songs…"

Santana smirked at Brittany.

"Yea, third song…that's what I meant," Brittany said, lying through her teeth. "That one was so great. Really…loud."

Rachel beamed. "Thank you for saying so. I always need to save my voice for my spin classes so sometimes I hold back on my true volume. I love to save my voice to encourage my students!"

Santana kind of wanted to pour the rest of her martini over Rachel's head. Thankfully, things never got that far as Quinn and Kurt joined the three.

"Rachel! You were fabulous!" Kurt exclaimed, grabbing Rachel's hands.

"How well do Kurt and Rachel know each other again?" Brittany whispered as she walked up to Santana.

"Not very," Santana told her, "I'm pretty sure this is the first time they've hung out."

"Lots of first hang-outs tonight," Brittany commented.

Santana smiled at the blonde. "Yea."

"Can I have a sip?" Quinn asked Santana. She pointed to the martini in the brunette's hands.

"Go for it," Santana told Quinn. She handed her drink over. Maybe if Quinn was holding it, it would be less likely to end up on Rachel's fancy dress.

Quinn drank the rest of the martini and stood next to Brittany, watching Kurt and a short woman discuss show tunes. "Who's that?"

Santana groaned and Brittany giggled.

Brittany took it upon herself to explain to Quinn who Rachel was.

After hearing the explanation, Quinn looked at Santana then back to Brittany. "And S looks so pissed because…?"

Brittany bit on her inner cheek to stop herself from laughing again. "Because Rachel called her Angry Eyes."

Quinn nodded. "S _does_ pull a mean glare. It used to scare me when we were younger but then I learned that she's a total softie."

"Oh _is _she now?" Brittany asked, glancing at Santana who was listening in on their conversation.

"What is this? Pick on Santana night?" Santana asked, throwing her hands up in the air half-heartedly. "Of _course_ I had angry eyes! She's insufferably motivating. There's only so much of her annoying cheering I can take before I try to melt her with my eyes." Santana looked at her nails casually.

"It's all an act," Quinn whispered to Brittany. "In college, she slept with a teddy bear called Mr. Brown."

"Mr. Brown?" Brittany asked.

Santana leapt between the two blondes. "Okay, that's enough! Uhm…Brittany, let's go get you another drink-"

"But I'm not done with this one yet!" Brittany said, holding up her still-full glass.

Quinn laughed.

Santana glared at Quinn. She tugged Brittany's arm again. She needed to separate Brittany and Quinn before Quinn revealed something even more embarrassing.

Brittany reluctantly agreed. "Okay, okay, I'm coming, _Angry Eyes_,"

Quinn burst into laughter. Brittany was awesome.

Santana groaned but still pulled Brittany back to the bar.

"I like her!" Quinn yelled at Santana's retreating form. After spending so many years seeing Santana suffer through her job and not make any friends, it was incredibly refreshing to see her best friend interact with Brittany. Quinn was often very busy with work so she couldn't hang out with Santana as much as she used to be able to. She hoped that Brittany was as cool as she seemed and that maybe Santana could build a friendship with her.

"Hey, Kurt?" Quinn said to Kurt, interrupting his conversation with Rachel.

"Oh, Quinn, meet Rachel Berry!" Kurt said, introducing the two.

Quinn said her hellos to Rachel before resuming her question. "Do you think Santana and Brittany…" Quinn looked over to the bar where Santana and Brittany were laughing with each other. She saw the way Brittany leaned especially close to Santana and the way Santana did the same. "Do you think…there's something there?"

Kurt, and Rachel, looked over at the two. "Like…romantically? I don't know." Kurt said honestly. "I mean…I know Santana is one hundred percent into the ladies but I have no idea about Brittany. I only just recently started getting to know her."

Quinn pursed her lips and continued to observe her best friend with her new, hot, boss. "I think there's something there."

"Maybe," Kurt said.

Quinn stayed watching the two. "You're going to be working with them both now, right?" Quinn asked, remembering Santana telling her how the man had given her resume to Brittany.

"Yea," Kurt answered. "Not in the same department but I see Brittany around a lot…"

"Keep me updated, will you?"

Kurt nodded and handed his phone over to Quinn. "Sure! Put in your number. I'll be sure to send you any updates." Kurt was excited by the thought of a prospective relationship between Santana and Brittany. Even though he knew nothing of Brittany's sexuality, gossip was his specialty and he was always ready to dish.

"You just became my new best friend," Quinn told him while she entered in her phone number.

"Oooo, can I be included?" Rachel asked. She clapped her hands together.

Kurt nodded excitedly.

Quinn shrugged. "Why the hell not." Rachel sure was weird. But, she figured tonight was for getting to know people. Surely she could use more non-lawyers in her life.

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The next morning, after Quinn had slept over, Santana had dragged her to a new bistro on the corner of Madison and 15th street. Last night at the bar, Rachel had gotten exponentially drunk as the night wore on. Kurt had done a Karaoke rendition with Rachel of at least three different show tunes and Quinn had 'accidentally' made out with a strange bearded man. Brittany had spilled a whiskey sour all over Santana's shirt and Santana herself had tripped at least five times. It sure was a Saturday for the books. It was the first time in years Santana had hung out with more people than just Quinn. It felt good. Even though all five of them were entirely different people, most of whom had met each other that night, they got along extremely well. Even Santana and Rachel had found common speaking ground in the abysmal state of the New York subway system.

"Don't make me," Quinn whined as Santana led her through the doors of the bistro. She had a pounding headache.

"C'mon," Santana urged. "You _know_ carbs will help your headache. Plus, this place is supposed to be amazing. It just opened last weekend and I've been dying to try it."

"This _better_ not be another Italian place." It was. Quinn groaned at the smell of spaghetti. "Santana, why do you do this to me?"

Santana just shrugged. "Shhh. You'll like it, I promise."

Quinn just let herself be led by the waitress to a two-seat booth along one wall of the restaurant. "They better have pizza here."

Santana smiled. "They do!"

"So," Quinn asked when she finally got some complimentary bread in her stomach. "Last night was fun…from what I can remember."

Santana snorted. "Yea...too bad that weird dude you kissed followed you around all night."

"He did?!" Quinn asked. She only slightly remembered meeting the mystery man.

Santana nodded and continued to eat her small loaf of bread soaked in olive oil and cheese. "Yea. He was drunk and kept swaying. He eventually went home once Kurt pretended to be your boyfriend."

"He did?!" Quinn asked again.

Santana nodded and laughed. "Yea, that was around two in the morning. After that the bar closed and we all went our separate ways."

"How are you not hungover right now?" Quinn asked Santana. She seemed too chipper this morning.

"As I recall…_someone_ kept finishing my martinis for me." She looked pointedly at her best friend.

"Me?" Quinn asked sheepishly.

Santana nodded.

"Oops," Quinn told her.

Santana laughed and let Quinn finish the rest of her bread and following meal in peace. After many years, Santana knew that Quinn dealt with hangovers in carb-filled silence. It wasn't silent for long though.

"Brittany?"

Santana looked up from her fettuccini alfredo. "What?"

"There's Brittany." Quinn pointed over Santana's shoulder.

Santana turned around in her seat so quickly that she felt her neck crack.

"Who's that she's with?"

Santana finally saw Brittany at the front doors of the restaurant. Both she and Quinn watched as Brittany and the person she was with waited for the hostess to seat them. She recognized Brittany's lunch partner. "That's the computer dude."

"Huh?" Quinn asked.

"Puck…" Santana said with her eyes still on Brittany and Puck.

"Puck? That's his name?" Quinn asked. "What kind of name is Puck?"

Santana nodded, still not able to look away. "I know, right?"

"Is he her boyfriend?"

Santana shook her head. "I don't think so? She said he's her tech guy. Computers and all that crap. I was there when he asked her to go with lunch him sometime."

"Guess that's now then, huh?" Quinn asked, watching Santana watch Brittany and Puck get seated by the hostess across the room from them.

"Guess so," Santana said. She turned back to face Quinn.

"You're not going over to say hi?" Quinn asked when she saw Santana resume eating.

Santana slurped her noodle and shrugged. She finished chewing before answering. "We just saw her last night and she looks busy so…"

Quinn sighed. "We should go say hi."

Santana chewed on her lower lip. "You think?"

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Well _yea_."

"Okay," Santana said. "Once we're finished eating we can go say hello."

Satisfied with that answer, Quinn pushed her plate away from herself. "Done."

Santana huffed at Quinn. She tried to eat more of her lunch but she just couldn't focus on anything besides Brittany and Puck. She wondered if the blonde was currently on a date. The thought made her upset for some reason. Puck seemed like kind of an ass. Brittany surely could do better. "What if she's on a date, Q. We shouldn't just go over there unannounced and interrupt."

Quinn rolled her eyes again. Santana was being weird. "Okay," She said, "I'll just text her and tell her we see her and ask if it's okay to come say hi." She pulled out her phone and began texting Brittany.

"You have her number?" Santana asked. How had Quinn gotten Brittany's number?

Quinn nodded while still typing. "When you were in the bathroom after she spilled her drink on you we decided to be best friends for life so, naturally, we exchanged numbers."

Santana groaned. "_I'm_ your best friend for life."

Quinn sent the text to Brittany and smirked at Santana. "Yea but you're whiny and I'm thinking of upgrading."

Santana scowled at Quinn's teasing. However, she didn't get to say anything because Quinn's phone buzzed.

"See," Quinn said, showing Santana her phone, "She says we should come say hi."

"…okay…" Santana didn't know why she still felt so reluctant to go over there. It was probably because of Puck. The guy just creeped her out.

Quinn threw a $50 bill on the table while standing up. She grabbed Santana's arm. "Let's go."

"Got over that hangover pretty quickly, eh?" Santana said suspiciously.

Quinn ignored Santana and led them over to Brittany and Puck's table. "Brittany!"

"Hey!" Brittany said brightly. She smiled at Quinn and waved at Santana, who was standing slightly behind the blonde.

"Hey, Brittany." Santana mumbled. Why did this feel so awkward for her? Also, why did Brittany have to look so good in a simple maroon sweater?

"Twice in one weekend, it must be fate." Brittany told the two women.

"Must be…" Puck said as he turned around. "Hey, you're the new girl, right?"

Santana looked from Puck to Brittany and back. Had Brittany spoken to Puck about her? How did he know that she had just been hired? Were he and Brittany that good of friends? Were they on a date?

Brittany noticed Santana's silence. "Uh, yea she is." She told Puck.

"And who might you be?" Puck asked, setting his eyes on Quinn. He wondered how Brittany knew so many gorgeous women. He guessed that they flocked together.

"Quinn Fabray," Quinn answered. She shook Puck's hand.

"Nice to meet you," Puck told Quinn. He winked at her before looking at Santana again, "And definitely nice to see _you_ again.

Brittany rolled her eyes. Of course Puck would flirt with both Santana and Quinn within seconds of seeing them. She kicked him under the table. She couldn't stand him sometimes.

Puck winced at the pain of Brittany's kick but didn't stop smiling at Santana and Quinn.

Quinn ignored Puck's stares and leaned her hand on the back of Brittany's chair. "So, how are you not hungover right now?" She asked the other blonde.

Brittany smiled. "I only had two drinks, remember? I spilled my third on Santana."

Santana smiled despite herself. "We just wanted to come over and say hi. We didn't mean to interrupt your…" Santana hadn't thought of a way to finish her sentence. She watched at Brittany and Puck looked at each other and then how they both looked away from each other almost instantly.

Quinn was ready for Brittany to answer but Brittany side-stepped giving an answer entirely.

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's great to see you guys again." Brittany told them.

Puck nodded.

"Well…we'll leave you to it…" Santana un-subtly tugged on Quinn's arm.

Quinn sighed. "Okay, we're going. Brittany, you have my number now, don't be afraid to use it."

"Bye, guys," Santana told Brittany and Puck, trying to move the process along. She didn't want to stand there any longer.

Brittany nodded at Quinn. "Bye Quinn. Santana, I'll see you on Tuesday?"

Santana nodded. "Bright and early?"

Brittany smiled at the brunette. "I'll email you tonight about what time to show up. Sleep in though, it's your first day so I don't want you to come in until after twelve."

Puck scoffed. "I want you as my boss."

Quinn nodded. "Me too."

Brittany laughed. "See you then." She told Santana. She watched as the brunette pulled Quinn away from them and as the two disappeared out the restaurant's doors.

"So," Puck said, a moment later.

"What?" Brittany asked.

"They're _nice_."

Brittany sighed. "Puck…"

"What?" Puck asked. "I didn't even say anything!"

"Are we going to order, or what?" Brittany asked.

Puck sensed Brittany's irritation. "Yea…of course. It took me three months to get you to come out to lunch with me. We are _definitely _ordering."

"Don't guilt trip me." Brittany warned.

Puck held his hands up in defense. "I'm not!"

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

On the train ride back to her apartment, Santana let Quinn lean on her shoulder and take a nap. However, the entire ride, Santana couldn't stop wondering if Puck and Brittany had been on a date. She wanted to know what Brittany liked about Puck. She wanted to know if Brittany had woken up that morning smelling like the perfume Santana had shared with her last night to cover up the smell of the dingy bar. She wanted to know how Brittany managed to look so put together on a casual Sunday morning. But mostly, Santana wanted to know if she and Brittany would ever get to go out to lunch together, just the two of them. "Quinn, you're drooling on me," Santana said to the blonde, whose head was heavily resting on her left shoulder.

Quinn just grunted and shifted her head to rest more comfortably on Santana.

Santana decided that on Tuesday she would try to impress Brittany as much as possible. She couldn't wait to work for Brittany. Even as a personal assistant, just being around the blonde made Santana feel motivated. She knew it would only be for a few months. Santana hoped she would get to learn Brittany's coffee order and whether she ate lunch at the office or chose to get take out from a restaurant. Santana caught herself wondering what Brittany's cell phone ring tones sounded like and what she was like during business meetings. Santana honestly couldn't wait to find out everything she could about Brittany S. Pierce. And that sort of scared her.


	9. A Little Bit Closer Now

"That's all you brought?" Kurt asked. He eyed Santana's small purse warily.

Santana looked at her purse. She had a small notepad and a few pens inside. That, paired with her smart phone, was pretty much everything she thought she would need. "Brittany didn't really tell me to bring anything."

"She didn't?"

Santana shook her head. This morning around ten, Brittany had sent her a quick reminder email to come around the office at noon and to bring a few pens because she had lost all of her own. "Not really…" Santana told Kurt. Now she was getting nervous. Was she forgetting some vital information? Was she supposed to bring a computer or something? She figured MCI would supply her one. Actually, Santana didn't even know if she would have a desk.

Kurt handed Santana her coffee. The two had met up over Kurt's hour-long lunch break. It was nearly eleven thirty and Santana was only half an hour away from beginning her job at Market Connections Initiative. Kurt sat down with a huff. "Well, if you need anything, just call my cell. It's always on and I'm always running around somewhere."

Santana nodded. "I don't know how you work for Richard Brooks every day. I've only met him once and already hate him."

Kurt took a sip of his steaming tea. "I know. But, it's a job. It pays well and I just keep reminding myself that he will die some day."

Santana smiled. She wanted so badly to tell Kurt that, soon, Carter Pierce would be CEO. But, she knew it was classified information. She just hoped Kurt could hold out for a few months longer. "I bet things will turn out for the better."

"I hope so," Kurt said, "I can't be getting premature wrinkles just because Richard Brooks thinks he's the boss of the world."

Santana agreed. "Do you think I'll be doing what you do?"

Kurt shrugged. "I'm not sure. I get coffee, make copies, send faxes, answer phones, and practically pamper him all day. I doubt Brittany will be quite as needy. But, MCI is a huge company and everyone is extremely busy. So, you could expect to be worked pretty hard. I guess it depends on what Brittany's requirements are."

"How come she doesn't already have a personal assistant?" Santana asked. She wondered why she hadn't just asked the blonde herself when she had the chance. She knew that she couldn't explain the entire situation to Kurt. She wasn't allowed to tell him that Brittany was just using her as a personal assistant for the sake of not ruffling Richard Brooks's feathers.

Kurt sipped his tea and thought. He really didn't know. "You've got a just as good a guess as me. All of the higher-ups have a personal assistant. Maybe it's because Brittany just kind of got that job. Or, maybe she didn't need one until now. Who knows. That girl is a mystery wrapped in an enigma."

Santana smiled. "She really is," she said. Brittany was mysterious. But, Santana was having a great time figuring her out. She still had a lot of questions, though.

Kurt patted the table. "C'mon. Let's get moving. I have to be there before twelve. Otherwise, Brooks gets pissed."

Santana frowned and followed Kurt out of the coffee shop. "Thanks for walking me," She told him. It was nice to have a familiar face take her to her first day of work. It made the entire journey feel muss less daunting. When the two arrived at the twenty-story gray building that held the entirety of MCI, Santana was even more grateful for Kurt.

"Impressive, huh?" Kurt asked. They stood, looking up at the sky reflecting off of the large windows of the exterior.

Santana felt the breath rush out of her. "Very."

Kurt nudged her side. "You'll get the hang of it. It's okay to be a little overwhelmed on your first day."

Santana just nodded. She squared her shoulders and tilted her chin higher. She was now an employee at one of the most successful companies in the entire United States of America. She tried to push that thought out of her mind and focus on the fact that she was here to assist Brittany, for now. Even so, it was going to be her job and she was going to do it well. If there was one thing Santana was good at, it was impressing people. She didn't know if Brittany was impressed by her, per say, but she aimed to be the best damn personal assistant Brittany S. Pierce had ever encountered.

Kurt watched Santana carefully. "Whatever you're thinking about right now, hold that thought." He ushered her inside. "You'll be great. Remember, call my cell if you need anything."

Santana almost didn't have time to wave goodbye as Kurt hurried so quickly to the elevator. She didn't need to take it. Brittany's office was right off of the lobby. That would probably be beneficial in the future but, right now, Santana wished for some more stall time. She didn't quite understand why she was so nervous, but she was. Even though she had met with Brittany a few times and even hung out with the blonde, butterflies still assaulted her stomach.

"There you are!" Brittany came up from behind Santana. She had seen Kurt and Santana come in, but had waited for Kurt to leave until approaching her new employee.

"Brittany, hi," Santana said, turning as the blonde came to stand beside her.

"You're on your way to my office?" Brittany asked.

Santana nodded.

"Great, but actually, you're coming with me." Brittany took a light hold of Santana's elbow. "I'm sorry to have to do this to you on your very first day, but I need some help with this…" She led them outside.

"Where are we going?" Santana asked. She followed Brittany around the entire front side of the building and around the corner.

Brittany checked her watch. "I have to sign for something and then somehow get it upstairs without Brooks knowing."

"Huh?" Santana asked. She kept following Brittany until the two of them stood outside the side entrance of the building. A large white truck was parked by the side doors.

"Puck!" Brittany called.

Puck poked his head out of the back of the truck. "Is it time?"

"It's time." Brittany said. She hopped onto the back of the truck.

Santana stood outside, still wondering what was happening.

"Santana," Brittany called. "C'mere for a second?"

The brunette walked around to the back opening of the truck and looked inside. She saw Brittany and Puck standing around a cube that came up to Brittany's knees. "What's that?" Santana asked, lifting up a leg to get into the truck herself.

Brittany stepped forward to help Santana get onto the truck. Gripping Santana's hands, Brittany pulled her up. "It's a weird LED projection thingy. Brooks wanted one for the lobby to project stuff onto the walls. He wants a grand entrance," Brittany told Santana. "We could never find one as big as what he wanted so Puck built one." Brittany patted Puck on the shoulder.

"It'll cast pictures or videos onto an area as tall as three stories and as wide as fifty feet, if needed," Puck told them.

Santana stared at the small cube. "Cool," she told Puck. She didn't really care about technology but the cube did look nice…

"It's cased in Italian marble," Puck whispered.

Brittany rolled her eyes. "Brooks has a bit of an expensive taste," she said to Santana.

Santana looked at the other two. "So, what are we going to do with it?"

"Well," Brittany said. "Today is Brooks's birthday and this is his present so-"

"We're gonna sneak it in." Puck said excitedly.

Brittany elbowed him.

"How?" Santana asked. She was sure marble weighed a lot…

Puck threw a black blanket over the cube. "Like this," he said.

Brittany turned to Santana. "Carter is out with Brooks right now, at lunch. So, we have like twenty more minutes until he gets back to get this thing into my office without anyone seeing. Carter wants to unveil it later today once he can gather everyone into the lobby."

Santana nodded. "Okay, let's go."

Brittany laughed. She admired Santana's ready-ness. "That's where you come in."

"Me?" Santana asked.

"You're the lookout," Brittany explained. "Puck and I are going to get this thing onto a cart and try to roll it in without breaking it-"

Puck frowned. "Better not break it."

"-And you're going to stand outside and look for my brother. If you see his car, then Brooks is back," Brittany finished.

"Brittany here likes to give me small windows of time just to keep things exciting." Puck joked, bumping his shoulder with Brittany's.

"It's not my fault," Brittany told Puck, "Brooks was supposed to be gone all this morning. Carter already has to suffer through lunch with him…"

Puck shrugged. "I don't think the guy's that bad." He began to heave the stone cube off of the ground.

Brittany helped him by tipping the rolling cart.

"You _like_ Brooks?" Santana asked. She was standing behind Brittany, watching the two finish lifting the projection system onto the cart. She paid attention to how the muscles in Brittany's arms strained against the weight of the cube.

Puck was now breathing hard. "He likes me, so he's not mean." He smirked at Brittany.

Brittany sighed. She stood back to look at Santana. "Brooks tends to _not_ treat men like crap."

Santana nodded. "Should I go be lookout now?" She asked. She saw that Puck was ready to start rolling the cart.

"Yea, thanks." Brittany told Santana. "Carter drives a silver Audi SUV. You'll know it's his because the front bumper will be bashed up."

"Which, if I remember correctly, you said was your fault," Puck mumbled.

Santana smirked at Brittany.

"It was _one_ time!" Brittany insisted.

Santana left the truck to be lookout. She walked to the front of the building quickly but she could still hear Brittany berating Puck for being 'such an ass'.

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The project was done. Brittany and Puck had gotten the cube projection system into Brittany's office in under ten minutes. The entire time, Santana had positioned herself just outside the front doors. She hadn't seen Carter's car and the mission had gone exceptionally smoothly. Santana was even able to be present when Brittany and Carter unveiled the cube for Brooks. After that, there was only an hour left in the work day.

"Sorry today was kind of crazy," Brittany told Santana. The two had been in Brittany's office together eating cake that was left over from the small celebration. "Usually we don't make such a huge deal with birthdays but it was Brooks's birthday so…"

"Had to go all out. I get it, don't worry," Santana replied. She had finished her chocolate cake just in time to see Brittany lick her fork clean.

"I'm just glad it's over with," Brittany said. "I've been dreading for like two weeks. Puck is good with technology and stuff but that stupid cube cost a lot of money to design."

Santana nodded. Earlier, when the cube was finally turned on in the lobby, it had cast such an enormous picture that Santana had lost her breath for a moment. The resolution was beautiful and the ability of such a small device to produce such a phenomenal picture was stunning. "I bet. It's cool though," She told Brittany.

The blonde wiped off her fingers on a napkin. "And it will add some color to the lobby. My dad always had giant pictures up of the places that he traveled and landscapes. It was really beautiful. But, when Brooks took over, he went for the 'modern' look and took all of it down."

Santana bit her lip. She felt such an enormous sorrow for Brittany. It must have been terrible for her to lose her dad, only to have him replaced by an idiot that didn't like her. Santana had watched the entire afternoon as Brooks paid all of his compliments to Carter and Puck while Brittany stood off to the side, completely ignored. Santana figured she shouldn't punch the CEO on her first day so she stood beside Brittany and observed. "It must suck," Santana ended up saying. "To see all of your father's work taken over by a man like Brooks."

Brittany's face fell. "It _has_ sucked. A lot. But, I know Carter will be CEO soon and I know he'll make everything the way it should be."

Santana had another question that she wanted to ask. Hopefully she wouldn't be prying too much. "Brittany…how come _you're_ not going to be CEO?"

Brittany looked at Santana and smiled.

Santana was flustered. She didn't know what that smile meant. Was she missing something? Was that personal information? "Sorry…I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," Brittany reassured her. "I didn't want to."

"You didn't want to?"

Brittany shook her head. "I got my Masters degree in business two years ago."

Santana's eyes widened. Brittany was full of secrets. She was as mysterious as she was impressive.

"But," Brittany added, "running this whole place was never something that I wanted to do." She crumpled up her used napkin in her hands and peered at Santana, who was sitting a few feet across from her, on the other side of her desk. "Good thing, too, because Carter is perfect for it. He just gets what to do and he doesn't really get overwhelmed. My dad could only pick one of us anyway."

Santana watched Brittany's face for any sign of emotion that betrayed her words but she found none.

"I mean, I'm good at my job. I'm good at Marketing. I'm a 'people person', not a 'power person'. At least, that's how I've always thought of it. Sorry…am I rambling?"

"No," Santana said. She rather liked Brittany's stream of consciousness. It made her feel more comfortable to know that Brittany was so incredibly humble. "I like hearing what you think…"

Brittany swallowed and then brushed invisible cake crumbs off her pants. "Thanks."

"Thanks for telling me," Santana told her.

"So…" Brittany said. She looked around her office. "Since today is your first day and we only have, like, forty minutes left…" She waved Santana over to her side of the desk. "Let me show you how to log onto the email system."

Santana placed her empty plate on the desk and stood up. She walked around to stand beside Brittany's chair.

"Okay," Brittany said. She logged into her computer. "Here's the server we use." She clicked on a small MCI mail logo on the desktop. "I've created a username for you already. It's SLopez01 and your password is up to you." Brittany turned her laptop towards Santana and turned her head away so that Santana could enter it in.

Santana was momentarily quiet because she had caught a faint whiff of Brittany's perfume. She remembered smelling it faintly a few times before but today, Santana was much closer to the blonde. She smelled like cotton candy and sugar. Santana's mouth watered.

"Are you entering it in?"

Santana snapped out of her creepy daze and quickly entered a password. "Yep, done."

"Okay," Brittany said. She turned her head back toward the computer and looked up at Santana. "You smell really good."

Santana narrowed her eyes at Brittany for a second before concluding that the blonde _hadn't_ just been reading her mind. "Thank you," she said, "I was just thinking the same thing about you." She saw Brittany's right hand absentmindedly rub at her left ring finger. Santana still wasn't exactly sure what that gesture meant but it had to mean _something_.

Brittany blushed. Was this inappropriate office conduct? She didn't exactly know. Frankly, she hardly cared.

"That's why I'm so thankful I'm gay." Santana said, just to break the mounting tension. "Women smell a thousand times better than men."

Brittany felt her cheeks pull into a large smile. She laughed despite herself. "God, that's true."

Santana nodded and couldn't help but look purposefully at the color of Brittany's eyes. She had yet to match the blue to anything she had seen in real life. It wasn't like an ocean or even like the sky. It was some other blue that had been on Santana's mind for awhile. It was frustrating her.

Brittany didn't flinch at the eye contact. She was a very eye-contact friendly person. She liked that Santana wasn't too nervous to look at her. This close, Brittany could see the darkness of Santana's eyes. They were such a deep, dark brown. Unexpectedly, she asked Santana a question. "Are you doing anything after work today?"

Santana watched the way Brittany's eyes flicked back and forth between her own. "No."

"Would you want to get coffee with me somewhere?"

Santana lifted an eyebrow at the blonde. "Oh so _now_ you're asking politely instead of ambushing me and taking me wherever you please?"

"Well you work here now," Brittany said, smiling. For some reason, the idea of bossing Santana around thrilled her. "I figure you have _some_ say in the matter, now."

"Just _some_?" Santana asked.

Brittany rolled her eyes and lightly bumped her shoulder into Santana's side. "If you don't come with me, I'll fire you."

Santana snorted out a laugh, much to her embarrassment. "That's more like it," She said while Brittany laughed with her.

"I just thought, since we didn't get to talk much today…"

Santana eagerly agreed. "Yea, we should have coffee. Talk."

"Get to know each other more," Brittany added.

Santana still hovered over Brittany's left shoulder. She tapped the top of the blonde's open laptop screen. "You're almost out of battery."

Brittany looked away from Santana to plug her computer back into its charger. She looked back at the brunette a moment later. Suddenly she felt that Santana was extremely close to her. It was making her nervous. "I just have a phone call to make. You can just chill on the couch and take this," she reached under her desk and brought out a brand new laptop, "and boot it up. It's brand new so you'll have to get it started."

Santana stared in awe at the laptop. She knew it was top-of-the-line. It must have cost at least a thousand dollars.

Brittany shrugged, seeing Santana's expression. "We all have them."

Santana took the device and figured that she would have to get used to working for such a prosperous company. She wasn't at all used to being treated so well at her workplace. "Okay," She said, still carefully cradling the laptop in her arms.

"It's completely yours so feel free to take it home and stuff. It has the entire company routed into your email server."

Santana sat down on the old leather couch in Brittany's office and began to open the new laptop box while Brittany sat at her desk and began her phone call. Santana supposed that she was speaking to a customer service representative because the blonde kept repeating herself and pressing buttons.

After a minimum of fifty minutes later, Brittany finally hung up the phone in a huff. She apologized to Santana for the wait.

"No problem," Santana said. She closed her new laptop and carefully placed it next to her on the couch.

Brittany plopped down next to her. Today had been exhausting. "So…I'm ready for some coffee, are you?"

Santana turned her body to face Brittany. She slung her right arm over the back of the couch. "I've only had two cups today, so yes." She smiled as she saw Brittany's eyes widen. "What? I like to have a minimum of five cups a day."

"And _I'd_ like to live a minimum of sixty years," Brittany teased.

Santana scowled at her. "Hey, it's not my fault my body runs on caffeine."

Brittany bit her lip. "You're gonna wear your heart out."

"It's a risk I'm willing to take," Santana told Brittany.

"Well, let's go then," Brittany reached over and patted Santana's knee. "I can't wait to ask you all sorts of questions."

"Can I ask questions back?" Santana asked as she followed Brittany out of the office. She left her laptop on top of Brittany's desk. As she had told the blonde earlier, she wanted to leave it here tonight until she got a proper bag to carry it in.

Brittany held all of the doors open for Santana on their way out of the office. "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Santana asked.

Brittany shrugged. "I mean, you can ask them. I just may not answer them."

Santana sighed. "Well at _least_ tell me the really important things like your favorite color and what kind of ice cream you like," she said sarcastically.

"That's classified." Brittany teased back. She found herself walking in sync with Santana down the busy New York sidewalk. The coffee shop that she had in mind was just a ten minute walk away. She hoped Santana didn't mind since the brunette was wearing heels.

"I'll figure you out one day, Pierce," Santana told Brittany. She had no doubt in her mind that she and Brittany would become close. It just felt right, as if a strange magnetism had brought them together in the first place.

"Only if I let you," Brittany said. She bumped her shoulder with Santana's, causing the brunette to let out a frustrated sigh. Brittany was normally a guarded person. She didn't have many friends and it took her long amounts of time before she would become comfortable with someone. However, Santana was changing all of that at an alarming rate. Santana Lopez was unlike anyone else Brittany had ever met.

"Oh, you'll let me," Santana said, coyly. She kept her eyes ahead of her, expertly dodging oncoming pedestrians.

"You sure about that?" Brittany asked, attempting a tone as equally confident and testing as Santana's.

The brunette nodded. She was very sure. "I just have a feeling," She replied. Santana had never believed in luck when it came to getting what you want. She believed in hard work. If something was meant to happen, you could _make_ it happen. You could _work_ for it. So, she knew that she wasn't going to just get luck and have Brittany open up to her. She would have to work for it. Santana planned to get to know Brittany Pierce. She just _had_ to.


	10. Philosophies

"Quinn invited me to Sunday brunch this weekend," Brittany said. She took a sip of her latte and looked at Santana. She and the brunette had been sitting at the small café for not more than five minutes and Santana was already finishing her first cup of coffee.

"She did?" Santana asked. She was rather taken aback by that information. Usually Quinn only had Sunday brunch every other month, if that. Also, it was usually just a best friend thing that they did. Quinn would complain about all of the movies they were watching and Santana would make fun of her bad cooking. They had been doing it for years, just by themselves. They used it as an excuse to spend an afternoon together, inside, and doing absolutely nothing but being lazy and eating.

"Is that okay?" Brittany asked. She didn't miss the surprise in Santana's eyes. "She texted me yesterday morning and said that this Sunday she wanted to host a Sunday brunch. She said you would be okay with it but if you're not…I mean, I get if it was just a friend type thing-"

"Brittany," Santana interrupted. She smiled at the blonde. "It's totally fine. More than okay, actually. Usually it's just me and Quinn sitting in her living room complaining about stuff. You're more than welcome."

Brittany was relieved. "Okay, cool! She asked me to tell you that Kurt and Rachel were going, too."

"_What_?!"

Brittany nodded. "Why? Is that weird?"

Santana stared at her dwindling cup of coffee in confusion. "It's just…it's been years since we've had like…anyone to hang out with besides each other…"

Brittany frowned. "Really?"

"Usually it's just me and Quinn against the world."

"Listen," Brittany said suddenly, "I really hope it's not weird that…well, I hope it's not weird how I'm your boss…and now we're hanging out…is it? Is that weird?" Brittany didn't know what to think of it herself.

Santana took a careful sip of her coffee just so she had more time to think of a proper answer. "It _is_ sort of weird,"

Brittany's face fell.

"But it's also not, you know?"

"How do you mean?" Brittany asked.

Santana shrugged her shoulders. She didn't quite know how to explain it. "I…I just feel like I _should_ be friends with you…"

Brittany saw Santana's eyes wander around her face, as if she was looking for something.

"Really I should be the one that's worried," Santana added, "You're my boss…"

Brittany lightly tapped the table with her fingers. "That's kind of what I want to talk about-"

"I thought we were here to talk about work stuff," Santana teased, trying to ease the sudden seriousness of their conversation.

Brittany waved her hand. "Work stuff is boring. I'll teach you all that stuff this week. What I really was hoping to talk about was that I really like hanging out with you…"

Santana's eyes widened but she kept her composure.

"I think I've told you before, but I've not had many friends over the past years. After I finished my Masters degree in California, I moved here and started working at MCI. I worked my way up in the Marketing department and didn't really get out much. I wanted my dad to be proud of me. Eventually, I think he was. But, then he died last year and it's been pretty hectic since then. My mom is still overseas, grieving. I've just been trying to help my brother keep calm and finish school so we can get Brooks out. I finally feel like everything is in a good place."

Santana paid close attention to Brittany's words. She wanted to remember everything. "I'm glad," She said, giving Brittany a small smile.

Brittany took a breath and kept going. "So I met Kurt eventually and now…you. And when we hung out last week I had a really good time."

Santana smiled at how cute Brittany was. She looked like she was a little kid that didn't want to get scolded.

"I know it's probably weird to be hanging out with your boss, but I really hope you won't think of it that way. Inside the office, I'm one person, but as soon as it's 4:00, I'm just Brittany…"

Santana studied the blonde's eyes the best she could. Brittany wasn't looking at her. Santana figured she was probably nervous.

"…so you can tell me to back off if you think it's weird or whatever but I'm just giving you my side."

Santana bit her lip when Brittany finally looked at her again. She never could remember the exact color of blue and it was always so striking to be reminded. The dull café lights didn't so the color justice at all.

"So…what do you think?"

Santana hadn't realized that her staring had produced a silence. Thankfully, she remembered what she had meant to say. "I think that you're a genius."

Brittany looked quickly to the table before focusing back on Santana's eyes. She honestly couldn't remember the last time someone had called her that. Even though she didn't exactly know what Santana was referring to, it still made her blush.

"I like the way you think about things," Santana admitted. She paused before continuing. "Here's what I think…Quinn is always off doing law things and the only other friend I have in this city, besides Kurt, is the sixty year old Chinese man who delivers my Friday night dinner."

Brittany laughed at the idea of Santana befriending her take out delivery man.

"I liked hanging out with you too, by the way," Santana was sure to mention. "So it's not weird for me as long as it's not weird for you."

Brittany smiled. "It's not weird for me."

"Then it's not weird for me."

"So I can come to brunch?" Brittany asked excitedly.

Now it was Santana's turn to laugh. "I wouldn't be _that_ excited. Quinn is notorious for burning anything she tries to cook."

"Can _you_ cook?" Brittany asked.

Santana slowly nodded. "Usually I'm too lazy to cook that early on a Sunday morning so Quinn does it, but I do know how to cook. My abuela taught me."

Brittany bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling too widely. "That's cute."

Santana huffed a breath out her nose before bowing her head. The way Brittany was looking at her made her feel uncomfortable, but not in a bad way. She decided to change the subject for her own sake. "So, are you gonna tell me your favorite flavor of ice cream?"

Brittany gave an exaggerated sigh. She rubbed her palms against the warmth of her coffee cup, pretending to think deeply. "I don't know. That's pretty personal…"

Santana rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. "You can ask me questions, too," She offered. "How about this…we can both ask questions but if one is too personal, we can just say 'no comment'". She raised her eyebrow at Brittany.

"I think that's a great idea. I'll go first," Brittany said, eager to begin. "What's your favorite animal?"

Santana answered immediately, "Whales."

Brittany's eyebrows shot toward her hairline. "Whales?"

Santana saw Brittany trying to conceal a laugh. "No laughing at my answers! Whales are cool!"

Brittany put her hand over her mouth to try and cover her grin. She nodded. "Whales _are_ pretty cool."

Santana huffed and crossed her arms. "What's _your_ favorite animal?"

"No comment."

"Brittany!"

The blonde laughed. "Okay, okay…ducks."

"Oh, I thought you would have said cats."

Brittany scrunched her nose. "Why…?"

"Because you have a cat," Santana said, finishing her coffee.

"How do you know?" Brittany asked. "I never told you that…"

Santana pointed to Brittany's black jacket. "Cat fur."

Brittany blushed and scowled at Santana.

Santana smiled at Brittany's annoyance. She had seen a few cat hairs on a couple of Brittany's shirts so far. "Your turn."

"Favorite flavor of ice cream?" Brittany asked.

"Coffee," Santana said.

Brittany shook her head. "I should have guessed."

Santana quickly glanced at Brittany's hands, where the blonde was once again playing with the second knuckle of her left ring finger. Brittany already knew that Santana knew that she had been divorced. Santana figured that asking about it this early in their friendship would still be overstepping her bounds. "Favorite flavor of ice cream?"

"I don't like ice cream." Brittany admitted.

Santana leaned back in her chair. "What?"

Brittany shrugged. "It gives me brain freeze."

"Hmmm…" Santana mused. She was stuck wondering what a world without ice cream would be like.

"Single?" Brittany asked next.

Santana looked at her. "Huh? Single what?"

Brittany sipped her latte. "Single. As in, are you single?"

Santana finally understood. "No comment."

"Hey!"

"What? That's personal," Santana said. She chanced a wink at Brittany.

Brittany took Santana's smile and wink as encouragement. "Tell meeee."

"Are _you_ single?" Santana asked.

"Does it matter?" Brittany replied softly.

Santana locked their eyes. "I'm single."

Brittany nodded. "Thought so."

"What? What do you mean?"

Brittany laughed. She was glad that she finally had Santana confused instead of the other way around. "Kurt told me."

Santana rolled her eyes. "No fair."

"Very fair." Brittany responded. She played with her now-empty latte cup.

"Your turn to answer," Santana said, "Single?"

Brittany narrowed her eyes at the brunette. "Well, you already know I've been divorced," She said, referring to Santana's first interview. "Can't you tell whether I'm single with your _amazing_ observational skills?" She teased Santana, hoping to keep the mood light.

Santana sat forward in her seat and crossed her arms on the table. She looked at Brittany's face. She noticed the light freckles that were dusted across the bridge of her nose and tops of her cheeks. She wondered if Brittany wore any makeup at all. "I'd rather you tell me."

"I'd rather you guess." Brittany countered. She sat forward as well, challenging Santana.

"I'd guess you're single." Santana began. "But, maybe you're not all that into being in a relationship…at least not at the moment. But, you're not completely against them. I think maybe you just need to meet the right person. Maybe someone unlike anyone else you've ever met."

Brittany felt a small chill run its way up her arms. She didn't break eye contact with Santana. "That's an interesting guess."

"Am I right?"

"_Parts_ of that are right," Brittany said.

Santana kept looking over Brittany's face for any tells that would give her away. "Which parts?"

Brittany figured she didn't have to hide everything. "Well…I like relationships. Always have. But, after my divorce…well, things were messy and stuff happened and maybe I'm not looking…"

Santana couldn't help but look at Brittany's pink lips as she spoke.

"I don't believe there's a right person or a wrong person. People are people. But I do believe that there's someone out there for me."

"Like a soul mate?" Santana asked.

Brittany felt herself blush. It was rather embarrassing how much Santana made her do that. "Maybe." Brittany said, coyly.

Santana smirked. "You're complicated."

"All the best puzzles are."

A short silence fell between them, filling the air and forcing them to really look at each other. Santana sort of felt like she was looking at the sun. Like she was meant to look away but she just couldn't.

"What about you?" Brittany asked.

"I don't really know," Santana admitted. She wondered how she and her boss had gone from talking about animals to talking about their philosophies on love. But, she wasn't one to shy away from such a topic. Not with Brittany. "I've always thought love was dumb or didn't exist. Romantic movies irritate me. But, then again, I'd say I've never really been in love. Never married. Never had a relationship that lasted more than a year. So, I'm biased against it."

Brittany nodded. She understood that. "Never had your heart broken?"

Santana looked away for the first time. "Have."

"Who?"

"…Quinn."

Brittany's eyes widened.

Santana saw Brittany's look of shock and decided that she should probably explain. "It was back in high school. Freshman year, when we first met, I had the hugest crush on her. All year, we would hang out and become even better friends. Keep in mind, this was even before I came out of the closet. So, on the first day of summer break, I couldn't handle it anymore and I kissed her in the parking lot of a McDonald's after telling her that I liked girls."

Brittany gasped. "A McDonald's?!" She snickered at Santana.

Santana gave her a warning look. "Hey, it was completely impulsive."

"Then what?" Brittany asked, completely enveloped in the story.

"Then she told me she didn't feel the same way but that I was still her friend. A few weeks later she started dating a blubbery football player named Finn."

Brittany's face fell. She could tell the memory was a painful one for Santana.

"I moped around that entire summer. I thought I was in love with her so of course I was crushed."

Brittany nodded. "I bet."

"But Quinn is hard to be mad at. I realized that she was my best friend and that it was meant to be that way. Of course, it helped a lot when I fell for a different girl in our class. So the Quinn thing kind of fizzled out naturally."

Brittany smiled widely at Santana.

"That's the closest I think I've ever really gotten to love. But it wasn't actual love."

"And now?"

Santana laughed. "Now Quinn is the best friend I've ever had. She just happened to also be my first straight girl crush."

Brittany sighed. "That could have been a beautiful love story…meet in high school and stay together forever."

Santana smiled at Brittany's whimsical look. "She's like a sister to me now. That's gross."

Brittany giggled. "Her loss."

Santana grinned. "I guess I feel like if it happens for me then great. But, if not, that's okay too."

"That's a very healthy way of looking at it." Brittany told her.

"That way I don't expect anything. I don't spend my days wondering when I'll meet the person I might marry."

"Or the person you'll have to divorce." Brittany added, sullenly.

Santana nodded slowly. "Or that."

Brittany kind of felt sad for Santana. She didn't know how a woman so beautiful, intriguing, and smart could just settle for a life without an epic love. Brittany felt like Santana deserved that.

"Besides, relationships just never work out for me. Girls always end up breaking up with me because they can feel how _not_ into it I am."

"See," Brittany said quickly, "That's what I like the idea of soul mates. I feel like I'll just _know_, you know? Everything will work out because it will just _work._"

Santana paused before continuing with caution. "But…didn't you feel that with…" She pointed to Brittany's ring finger.

The blonde had to look away. "Looking back on it, yea. I thought I did feel that way. Like everything was perfect. But, towards the end, I realized no…no, I didn't."

Santana waited for Brittany to continue.

"I got married for all the wrong reasons. I was young…we tried to make it work…but it wasn't _real_ love. It was more of an exaggerated and rushed panic-love. It wasn't the love that I _want_."

"I'm glad you got out of it then," Santana told Brittany. She didn't want to pry anymore. "I'm glad you didn't settle."

Brittany stared at the slope of Santana's neck and the fullness of her lips. She only let herself look briefly. "I'm glad too."


	11. This Is What Friends Do

The week had rushed by for Santana. Not only did Brittany's professional life surprise her, but it intimidated her. Sure, the first half-day was relaxing and having coffee with Brittany after was nice. Well, more than nice. But, the following three days were filled to the brim with appointment-making. That meant that Santana was on the phone, staring at the screen of her laptop for hours. Brittany had told her to cram in as many appointments and meetings as she could over the next month, purely because MCI was trying to hold onto its bid on the new space in London. Apparently, a different company wanted to buy the warehouse space and it was Brittany's job to make sure that didn't happen. Santana only had a moment to be proud of herself for helping to pick the London location. So, Santana had packed Brittany's schedule with board meetings, meetings with the financial advisor for the company, as well as meetings with designers to create a full-scale replica for the layout of the new London space. Brittany had insisted on doing the brunt of the work herself because Carter had been away doing other important business.

"Remember," Brittany had told Santana on Wednesday, "It will be crazy, but don't be afraid to give me ten-hour days. I want to be sure that I'm able to meet with everyone I need to. We have to put our second bid on the warehouse in next month so that's the deadline."

Santana had only nodded and gotten back to taking calls at the desk Brittany had set up for her outside her office. Santana had been a little disappointed that she wasn't in the same room as Brittany but she was happy with her new large work area.

"And take a break every few hours, Santana," the blonde suggested, "get yourself some coffee or something. Don't freak out too much about how many people are calling."

Santana was already freaked out. As soon as the professional world had heard about a new branch of MCI looking to open in London, people were calling in hoards. Designers wanted to work on the space, architects wanted in on the structural aspects, and London-based supply companies were calling for product mock-ups on existing material. Basically, Santana was drawing up charts. She was strategically planning all of Brittany's meetings while taking the names of all of the professionals, their prices, locations, and cross-cataloging them. She figured that if she were prone to panic-attacks, she would have had several. Thankfully, Santana saw challenges as chances to shine so she opted to never leave her desk.

At the end of the workday on Friday, Santana had presented to Brittany a wildly colorful agenda that displayed her next month in detail. Brittany was going to 47 different meetings. Then, Santana had showed her the list of all of the design, architectural, and material offers that had come in. Santana had those catalogued as well.

"This is impressive," Brittany said, flicking through the papers. "I should put this into an Excel spreadsheet so-"

"Already done," Santana told her. "I just emailed it to you a minute ago."

Brittany closed her computer and smiled at Santana. "Seems I hired you at just the right time in my life, huh?"

Santana pretended not to be flattered. She shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, I don't know. It was pretty easy."

Brittany shook her head. "Humble? You?"

Santana just smirked at her. Bantering with Brittany had quickly become on of her favorite parts of the day. "Oh," She said, pulling a pack of candy out of her pocket, "I got you this on my lunch break." She handed the candy to Brittany.

"Dots?" Brittany asked, playfully shaking the box of jellies. "Should I even _ask_ how you know Dots are my favorite?"

"You can," Santana said, "But the three empty containers I saw in your trash bin on Monday could give you the same answer."

Brittany sighed. "Ok, I'm a closet candy-addict, are you happy?"

Santana laughed. "I was never _un_happy…"

Brittany put the box of Dots down and started to pack up her things. "Thanks for being so great this week. I know I threw a lot at you. I would have been able to help out more if Carter wasn't in Korea."

Santana nodded. Brittany's brother had gone to Korea on Wednesday, meeting with one of MCI's top clients. Brooks was already in Mexico making some million-dollar deal, so Brittany was alone for the time being. Santana thought it was impressive how Brittany was able to handle things by her self. "Don't worry about it. That's what I'm here for, right?" Santana asked. She waited as Brittany put on a scarf.

"Well," Brittany commented, "Technically, no, but for now, yes."

Santana held the door open for Brittany on the way out of the blonde's office and Brittany held the door open for Santana on their way out of the building's main doors.

"Ahhh." Brittany exhaled into the cooling evening air. She looked at Santana. "Feels good, doesn't it?"

Santana had a hard time feeling good about the pollution-soaked, noisy New York air.

"C'mon, San," Brittany said, nudging the brunette. "It's the weekend!"

Santana was amused by Brittany's change in demeanor once they had gotten outside of work.

"Can I walk you to your car?" Santana offered. She knew that Brittany parked in the parking lot behind MCI. Santana herself opted for the subway. Even though she hated being in such close quarters with smelly people, at least she didn't have to sit in New York rush hour traffic.

Brittany smiled brightly. No one had offered to do that in years. "Really? It's kind of a far walk…"

Santana nodded and began walking. Thankfully, Brittany followed. "I've discovered I don't like taking the 4:30 train home. It's crazy busy. I usually take the 4:45 train. That's a little less crowded. There's less probability of having my face shoved into some guy's armpit."

Brittany snorted. "Ew." She didn't know Santana took the train. The brunette seemed more like a car girl to her. "Have you always taken the train?"

"I tend to have road rage," Santana told her. "So, for the past eight years, yea."

Brittany smiled at the side of Santana's face as they walked. "Do you live far?"

"About fifteen minutes." Santana said. She tucked her hands into her pockets. It was colder than she expected today.

"Can…I can drive you…if you want?" Brittany suddenly offered. She saw Santana's eyebrows lift in surprise. "I mean, there's almost a zero percent chance of having your face in an armpit if you let me drive you home…"

Santana huffed out a laugh. "Almost a zero percent chance?"

Brittany bit her lip and scrunched her nose. "I can't promise anything."

"I wouldn't want you to have to go out of your way…" Santana began to say.

"I actually have a few errands to run this evening so it's no trouble."

"You do?" Santana asked. "Don't you ever stop working?" She teased.

Brittany shook her head. "I've gotta pick up some dry-cleaning and then go get ingredients for something I'm making for Sunday."

"For brunch?" Santana asked as she and Brittany stepped over a curb. They were only halfway to the parking lot.

"Quinn asked me to bake dessert," Brittany answered.

Santana scoffed. "That lazy…" She stopped herself. "She just doesn't want to have to do it herself."

Brittany put her hand on Santana's arm. "It's totally fine. I'm good at baking anyways. Cupcakes are my specialty. Partly because they're easy and partly because I get to eat all of the extra frosting," She whispered the last part to Santana.

The brunette squeezed closer to Brittany on the sidewalk as more pedestrians crowded the space. "That's still nice of you."

"Won't you be bringing anything?" Brittany asked. "Quinn said that she would be making french toast, Kurt is bringing a quiche, and Rachel is brining some vegan thing."

Santana frowned. Vegan? Gross.

"I'm brining the dessert so…"

"Alcohol!" Santana chirped. "I'll bring the alcohol."

"Quinn said you'd be doing the bacon."

Santana rolled her eyes. "That girl and her love-affair with bacon." She recalled the short text that Quinn had sent her a few days ago. It simply said "_sizzle sizzle_". Santana had spent enough years with Quinn to know what that meant. She was doing the bacon.

"So is that a yes?" Brittany asked.

Santana had almost forgotten what Brittany had offered to do for her. "That's a yes."

Brittany smiled at Santana. "Cool. I can finally see where you live."

Santana wanted to comment on Brittany's words but she just let the silence linger between them for the time being. Upon entering the parking lot, Santana could hear the unmistakable click of Brittany's heels against the asphalt. She had heard a lot of that over the past few days. She made sure to trail behind Brittany because she wasn't exactly sure what her car looked like.

"This is me," Brittany said, once they had walked a few isles down. She manually unlocked her bright blue car.

Santana was actually surprised. She sort of expected Brittany to have some sort of luxury SUV or at least a two-door coup. But no, Brittany drove a Prius. Santana liked this reality a lot better than what her imagination had conjured up.

"Are you judging Sally?" Brittany called from inside the car. She was waiting for Santana to get in.

"Sally?" Santana asked, once she had opened the passenger side and slid into the car. "You named your car Sally?"

Brittany stuck the key in the ignition and laughed at Santana's furrowed brow. "Don't judge."

"I'm not, I'm not," Santana said, putting her hands up in defense. "I like it…her."

Brittany smirked as she turned the car on and waited for Santana to buckle up. "Good."

Santana sat back and let Brittany maneuver out of her parking spot. The inside of the car smelled a lot like flowers. Santana spied the culprit in one of Brittany's cup-holders. It was a peach & wildflower scented body-spray. It suited Brittany a lot, Santana thought.

"So," Brittany said once she had reached the end of the parking lot, "You're gonna have to tell me which way to go."

"Oh, right." Santana said. She sat up in her seat. "Uhm, left. Go all the way to Waterstone Park…do you know where that is?"

"Yea!" Brittany said.

"I live right past it, on the same street as the library."

"I know exactly where that is!" Brittany cheered to herself. She liked learning things about Santana. She found herself wondering what the color of Santana's apartment building was and how many windows there were and if Santana liked to open them in the summer.

"Where do _you_ live?" Santana asked. She was almost positive that she could have Google-stalked Brittany but she hadn't so far and didn't plan to. Learning the information from Brittany herself felt much more satisfying and much less creepy.

"I live in a loft on Grand Ave."

Santana nodded. That was a nice area.

"You'll have to come see it some time. People say it's haunted but I don't believe them."

Santana wondered if Brittany was trying to casually mask the invitation to her place. "I love ghosts and ghost stories," She said. "Maybe we can buy a Ouija board and conduct a séance."

Brittany laughed. "I'm not kidding. Sometimes I hear weird things at night. Carter stayed over once and said her head someone laughing…"

Santana shivered in her seat. "And that doesn't freak you out?"

"Not really," Brittany shrugged, "It's a pretty old building so I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of ghosts wandering around. My cat, Lord Tubbington, always stares off at nothing. I'm pretty sure he can see ghosts. But, he's not scared, so neither am I. I figure he would let me know if there was something to be worried about."

Santana looked over at Brittany and admired the way the evening's fading light cast shadows onto her skin. She liked this. Brittany's voice sounded so much different in such a private space. It was like her words were sharper. Santana could hear the way each one was formed.

Brittany noted Santana's sudden silence and took a quick glance to her right. She saw only a split second of Santana smiling softly at her. It made her stomach drop as if she had missed a step while going down the stairs. "What?"

"Nothing," Santana was quick to answer. She was embarrassed to be caught staring. "I just…you're pretty cool…that's all."

"Because I'm not afraid of ghosts?" Brittany asked, smiling despite herself.

Santana loved the quiet way Brittany spoke. "I dunno," Santana said. "Everything, really." She faced the front again and gestured to the road. "I mean, even taking me home. It's really nice of you."

Brittany rolled her eyes but kept her smile. She reached over and quickly tapped Santana's knee. Her fingertips met skin due to Santana's skirt. "Hey, we're friends now, remember?"

Santana wanted to hold Brittany's warm fingers on her cold skin. She scolded herself internally for thinking in such a way. God, she really needed to get laid if she was thinking about her boss…friend…whatever…in this way. It wasn't her fault that her boss just happened to be a drop-dead-gorgeous woman that was amazing in all the right ways. Not her fault at all. Santana was only human.

"How about this," Brittany said suddenly. Her impulses always got the best of her. "In compensation for driving you home, which is _such_ an extremely difficult job, how about you come to the store with me right now and help me get baking things?"

Santana stiffened.

Brittany only briefly wondered if she was pushing too far, yet again. It had been quite awhile since she had had a good friend. It was hard not to want more of Santana. Brittany decided that this is what friends do. They hang out. They shop. There was no problem.

"Now?" Santana asked.

"Sure!" Brittany said. "I mean, unless you already made plans-"

"I'm free," Santana told her quickly. "No plans."

"So you'll come?"

Santana nodded. "Sure, why not. As long as we get something to eat because I'm starving."

Brittany was glad that she wasn't the only one. "Me too! Dots can only hold me over for so long."

"You didn't even eat any," Santana accused, "They're still in your purse."

"I'm saving them." Brittany said, smiling. "They make great midnight snacks."

Santana pressed her head into the head rest. This felt good. She felt relaxed. She liked the little grunts Brittany made whenever someone cut her off or she got stopped by a red light. "In a hurry?" Santana asked, witnessing Brittany begin to tap her fingers against the steering wheel.

"Just really hungry," Brittany said. She had been mentally going over a list of fast-food places that she could suggest to Santana.

"Wait," Santana said, perking up. She began to bounce in her seat. "I can take you to Breadstix!"

Brittany remembered how she had told Santana that she had never been. She was surprised at Santana's jubilance but, then again, Quinn had warned her about the woman's breadstick obsession. "That sounds good to me," She said. She reached over again and placed her hand on Santana's shoulder. "But just…calm down. How much coffee did you have today?"

"Only six cups," Santana said. She saw Brittany's eyes widen. "But that's not even a lot!"

The blonde patted Santana's shoulder. "Well, good thing you're caffeinated. We've got a long, adventure-filled night ahead of us."

Santana only got more excited. Brittany _and_ Breadsticks? She was wondering what she had done to get such great karma. "I really hope you like it."

Brittany had long-since turned her car away from Santana's apartment and was heading for the center of the city, where all of the good restaurants were located. "I bet I will."

"If you don't, that's okay, but we can never speak again."

"That's too much pressure!" Brittany exclaimed.

Santana folded her arms across her chest and shifted her body so that she was facing Brittany more.

"Plus, that would make work a little difficult, don't you think?" Brittany asked. They were at a red light so she took an opportunity to look at Santana, who was making an almost passable stern face at her.

"I don't joke about these things."

Brittany only laughed. For some reason, she felt like she was in high school again. She felt like she was back in the days where she and her friends would drive around and do nothing except laugh and play music. It felt so good. "Maybe we will even stay for dessert." She told Santana. The light turned green.

"Okay!" Santana said. "They have this really delicious chocolate covered-"

Brittany drifted off. Usually, the stress from her work week stayed with her into the late hours of the night. But, with Santana, it was all melting away. She felt like she had consumed three energy drinks. Even though the sky was quickly beginning to darken, and the autumn shadows grew longer, Brittany could only feel the heat of the car and the air around her. She liked Santana's company. She liked Santana's mere presence. It made her feel different in a way that she never had before. Brittany felt like something inside her was changing. It was as if her body was relaxing. And, God, did she love it.


	12. Bread and Butter

You all really made my day with your reviews. So, I've decided to go back to my computer and start writing more for a quicker update. Thank you for the love :)

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Even after the arrival of the first delicious batch of breadsticks to their table, Santana was over-analyzing what she had done earlier. When she and Brittany were being seated, Santana had pulled out her chair for her without a second thought. It had been something that she had just done on auto-pilot. There was a beautiful girl and they were at a restaurant…she had done it on instinct.

"Santana, you ok?" Brittany had her first breadstick lying on the small bread plate in front of her. She didn't want to start eating without Santana.

"Yea," Santana said, trying to relax her stiff shoulders. She couldn't stop wondering if Brittany thought it was weird that Santana had pulled out her chair. _Was_ it weird? It hadn't felt weird in the moment…but it did now. What if it made Brittany uncomfortable? What if Brittany was now _uncomfortable_?

Brittany wondered why Santana looked so uncomfortable. "You sure? You look a little freaked out…"

Santana felt bad for making Brittany think there was something wrong. Clearly the blonde wasn't having issues with the chair incident. Actually, Brittany had only smiled and thanked her before sitting down. Santana figured that Brittany was probably used to people holding chairs out for her…and holding doors open for her…right?

"Aren't you going to eat one with me? Santana." Brittany said. She waved her hand in front of Santana's face. Why was the brunette spacing out? "You sure you're not too tired for this?"

The brunette eagerly grabbed a breadstick. "Sorry, sorry. I'm just thinking about…it's not important."

Brittany watched Santana carefully.

"Let's do this," Santana said, picking up her breadstick and waiting for Brittany to do the same. "Hopefully I haven't hyped this place up too much for you."

Brittany couldn't wait anymore. She took a huge bite of the buttery breadstick.

Santana nervously nibbled on her own bread. She was watching Brittany's reaction across the table from her. Brittany chewed and then smiled wide. She spoke through a still-full mouth.

"This is amazing!"

Santana laughed as crumb of bread flew out of Brittany's mouth when she spoke. It made her feel better. Thankfully, Brittany was hard to embarrass because the blonde just kept eating. Santana was quick to follow.

After Santana and she had polished off three breadsticks, each, their food had arrived. Brittany had ordered the spaghetti and Santana the fettuccini alfredo. "I love this place." Brittany commented. "I love the bread…the portions…the music…"

"I'm glad," Santana said. She watched Brittany continue to look around the restaurant. "Quinn will be sad that I corrupted you."

Brittany giggled.

"You've got a little sauce on your lip," Santana said. She had seen the small flick of red marinara on Brittany's chin. It was hard to miss on the paleness of the woman's skin.

"Where?" Brittany asked, wiping her mouth.

Santana knew Brittany would miss it. The situation made her face heat up. If this were a date, she would have easily reached over and wiped away the sauce with a careful thumb. But this wasn't a date. And Brittany was her boss…friend. _Friend_.

"Did I get it?"

"A little lower," Santana whispered.

Brittany rubbed the entire napkin on the entirety of her face.

Santana laughed quietly as Brittany grinned at her. "You got it that time."

"Thought so." Brittany said. She resumed eating her food but decided to watch Santana as well. She thought it was cute how Santana would carefully cut her pasta and then, equally as carefully, spin her fork until a piece was perfectly wound around it. Only then would the brunette slowly lift the fork full of food to her mouth. Brittany liked how Santana ate carefully and slowly. It was like she was savoring every bite.

"What?" Santana asked. She had realized that Brittany was watching her eat. With a look of horror, she asked "Do I have something on my face?"

Brittany shook her head. "Just the usual stuff. Eyes, nose, mouth."

Santana swirled her fork around on her half-empty plate. She had been wanting to ask Brittany something and found this as the best opportunity. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Brittany said. She put down her own fork and started absentmindedly tearing at her leftover breadstick. The way Santana was looking at her made her nervous.

"Uhm…okay…well, when I went into see Brooks, with Carter, uhm…"

Brittany tensed.

"Brooks said some…_things_ about you that…I…"

"He's such a charmer," She said sarcastically. "What'd he say this time?"

Santana frowned. So it was a common occurrence? "Well…he said stuff about how you had brought trouble…how the company didn't need…that embarrassment?" She said the last part cautiously. She didn't want to overstep her bounds. "I mean…I know you want us to be friends and all but still feel free to tell me to mind my own business regarding work because…it sounds like he's got a real grudge…"

Brittany shifted in her seat and put down the breadstick bits. She put her hands in her lap so that Santana wouldn't see her picking at her nails, which she did a lot of when she was nervous. "Uhm…it's not really _that_ scandalous. I mean I didn't like _kill_ anyone or anything. Honestly, he blew it all out of proportion just because he doesn't like me."

"So he didn't like you _before_ whatever happened…happened?"

"Richard Brooks has hated me ever since I signed my rights over to Carter, completely."

Santana was confused. "What does that mean?"

"Well…in my dad's will…I think my dad wanted both Carter and I to share the spot of CEO. He wanted us to be partners. You see, I had already finished my MBA and Carter was just about to start his and so my dad had big plans for us. In his will, he wrote it in that it would be split 50/50 between us. But, I didn't want the position. When my dad died, and I told Carter that it was all his if he wanted and I signed over my complete share. I could have chosen to select another person to take my place _or _I could have sold the position…"

Santana was glad that she wasn't born an heiress to a major company. It sounded complicated.

"But…I just signed it over to Carter. Clearly, Brooks was pissed that he didn't even get a shot at it. Honestly, did he really think that I _wouldn't_ give it to Carter?"

Santana nodded. "So he just got CEO for the year?"

Brittany nodded. "He only gets 5% of what the company makes each fiscal year as the CEO, which is still a lot of money, but that's only until Carter finished his MBA. So, Carter finished it as quickly as he possibly could. So then, that's it. Brooks is out."

"So you cost him millions," Santana teased.

Brittany laughed. "He's just a leech. It's my family's company. It was my dad's whole life. He just expected me to hand it over?"

"He's an ass, anyways."

"Yes, he is." Brittany said. She took a sip of her drink. "But, that's how it started. That's why he hates me. It's dumb."

"So…" Santana continued. "What was the trouble you caused the company?"

Brittany was back to looking at her plate. This was not a subject that she particularly enjoyed talking about. "Uhm…really, it was just a private issue that was made public."

Santana didn't want to push Brittany so she just waited for her to say something else.

"Let's just say that, after my marriage failed…" Brittany said. She was finding it hard to look Santana in the eye. But, Santana was her friend now and friends talked about these things. Surely, it wasn't too personal, right? It was all in the past anyway… "While I was still going through the process of the divorce…erm…I had a _thing_ with someone and it went bad and Brooks found out about it…"

Santana didn't know where to start. She figured that here were only two reasons Brooks would care about something like that… "Did…did you have a _thing_ with someone in the office? Or did your _thing_ show up at work?"

"Both," Brittany confessed. She kept her eyes on her pasta. "It was someone in the company. In the financial department. It was a mess. I broke it off with them and, thankfully, they let it go and everything was fine but…"

Santana saw Brittany begin to play with her ring finger. "Oh my god. Don't tell me your ex-"

"Found out about it and made a scene at my workplace?" Brittany said. "Yea…that'd be correct."

Santana's jaw dropped. Even in her surprise, she respected Brittany's lack of information regarding the names of the people involved. But, God, did she desperately want names.

"So anyway," Brittany continued, just so that she could finish the story, "My ex thought I had been cheating when I hadn't and made a giant scene in the _lobby_ of work. Clearly, it was _not _my best moment."

"When was this?"

Brittany sighed. "Uhm…my dad had just gotten diagnosed so…it was about two years ago. Brooks was learning the ropes, just like Carter is now, and my dad was too sick to run anything anymore. So, Brooks took it upon himself to fire me."

Santana scoffed. He fired the CEO's daughter? "Seriosuly?"

"It was really, honestly, the worst."

Santana agreed. That sounded terrible.

"So I got accused of cheating by my ex, had a very public confrontation, _and_ Brooks fired me."

"Wait, he actually was able to?"

"Not for too long," Brittany added. "Thankfully my dad was still coherent enough to reverse it. But all the paperwork took about a month…there was a restraining order and everything…"

"Against _you?_!" Santana asked.

"No," Brittany said, "I filed one. So my ex couldn't come within 500 feet of me or my place of work again."

"God," Santana said, leaning back in her chair. "That's a lot to handle."

"Tell me about it," Brittany said. She had resumed eating her food. She finally looked at Santana for more than a second. "So…that's what happened in a nutshell."

"You lead quite an exciting life."

Brittany smiled. "I try, I try. Never a dull moment."

Santana laughed. "Thanks for telling me."

The blonde shrugged. "You'll have to tell me something equally as good about yourself to make up for it."

"Always a price to pay," Santana said, grinning at Brittany like a fool. Even thought the conversation had felt tense, Brittany's attitude never stayed dark for too long.

"C'mon," Brittany said, "Tell me what'cha got."

"Well, I secretly have seven children. I run a drug-smuggling industry through tunnels under the U.S.-Canadian border, _and _I'm really 56 years old," Santana said. She pointed to her face, "All of this is just _really_ good plastic surgery."

Brittany laughed loudly, drawing the attention of nearby diners. "I _thought_ so."

Santana narrowed her eyes at the blonde.

"You smell a little like mothballs." Brittany crinkled her nose for effect.

Santana threw a wrapped packet of butter at Brittany.

"Hey!"

"Kidding, kidding!" Brittany said, holding her hands up to shield her face.

"You better be," Santana said. She put her napkin on top of her plate. She was extremely full. Usually, she would eat at least two more breadsticks but she didn't want to seem too over-eager in front of Brittany.

"Really though," Brittany said. "Tell me something juicy."

Santana crumbled at the way Brittany was looking at her expectantly. Honestly, Santana didn't know how anyone ever denied her anything. "When I finally told my parents I was gay, they kicked me out of the house."

"What!?" Brittany asked, suddenly serious.

"They couldn't take it," Santana said, "I guess I really shocked them."

Brittany could only listen.

"But my brother yelled at them. Like, I guess he really yelled at them and told them that he would run away and follow me if they didn't let me come back home."

"Where had you gone?" Brittany asked.

"Only to Quinn's house," Santana said. "Of course I didn't tell her mom the real reason why I had gotten kicked out. I told her it was because I didn't get straight As."

Brittany laughed. "Wow."

Santana nodded. "But, she believed it and let me stay."

"And Quinn was okay with that?"

"She was actually planning for it," Santana told Brittany. "I told Quinn that I was going to come out to my parents that night, and she was perfect. She waited in her car outside my house. So, when things went wrong, my bag was already packed and I hopped into her car, and that was that."

"I like Quinn," Brittany said.

Santana nodded. "So, yea. My brother threatened them and told them that he loved me anyway and that they should too."

"Well, they should." Brittany said under her breath.

"It was mostly my mom," Santana said. "She's been hardcore Catholic all her life. So is my abuela."

"How'd it all turn out?"

"Well, after a week, my mom came and got me from Quinn's house. Long story short, she told me that she was sorry and that she still loved me."

"What made her change her mind?" Brittany asked.

"She said that she imagined never getting to see me again and she just couldn't do it. She said that she had learned things from my abuela a certain way and that was hard to let go of. But, she worked on it. For years, she worked on it and kept asking questions."

Brittany smiled.

"And it eventually was okay. Of course I forgave her…she's my mom."

"Still, though," Brittany said. "Even a week…that'd be hard for anyone."

Santana nodded. It had been a hard time in her life but she was miles past that dark place now. "So there. That's my dramatic life event."

"I think we're even now." Brittany said. Only a moment later the waiter came with the check and she reached for it.

Santana was quick to cover the bill with her own hand.

Brittany found her hand covered by Santana's and laughed. "Let me get it."

"No way," Santana said. "This is on me."

Brittany frowned.

"You can pay next time. After you take me to _your_ favorite restaurant."

Brittany looked at Santana skeptically.

"Deal?" Santana asked.

"Okay," Brittany said. She only waited a small moment before she slipped her hand out from under Santana's. "Deal." As Santana was looking through her purse, Brittany admired her from afar. She wondered how scared Santana was back then. She wondered how Santana felt about her sexuality now? She seemed like a completely confident person but Brittany wanted to know everything. What were Santana's greatest fears? What were her darkest moments?

"Alright," Santana said, after she had placed a $50 bill on the table. "Where are we going now?"

Brittany stood up and brushed the breadcrumbs off of her shirt. Santana was doing the same. "Now we go to the grocery store to get cupcake supplies."

"Lead the way," Santana said.

Once they were settled back in her car, Brittany turned on the radio to create some soft background noise.

"Hey," Santana said. She turned in her seat to look at the blonde. "Not that mysteries aren't fun but are you ever gonna tell me who your ex is? Or who you had your fling with?"

Brittany knew that question was bound to be asked. But, she didn't want to give everything away too soon. She was still trying to sort out her personal life, after all. "Nope," she said.

Santana groaned.

"Where would be the fun in that?"

"I'll have to find a secret to keep from _you_, now." Santana told her.

Brittany laughed. "I don't know that much about you still. You're like a walking box of secrets."

"You just wait," Santana said. "One day you're going to want to know something about me and I'm _not_ going to tell you."

"That's fair." Brittany said.

Instead of finding a witty comeback, Santana was content with riding in Brittany's car all the way to the grocery store. The night had gotten dark quickly. Santana liked how the city lit up against the blackness. It felt good just to be silent. To just be with Brittany. To just _be_. Santana was not looking forward to the part of the night where Brittany dropped her off but at least she had Sunday to look forward to. Santana was quickly finding that Brittany was filling a hole in her life that she hadn't known was there. Santana hadn't had a friend like this in years. In fact, the past month with Brittany in her life was far surpassing even the highest points of her best relationships. Santana couldn't wait for what was in store. She couldn't wait for Brittany to invade more of her life. It should have scared her. It didn't.


	13. Sizzle Sizzle

Early Sunday morning, Santana was woken up by the vibration of her phone. Opening one groggy eye, she unlocked her phone and looked at the incoming message.

Brittany: _Did you say you liked sprinkles?_

Santana: _Sprinkles?_

Brittany: _On cupcakes :p_

Santana: _I never said._

Brittany: _Are you sure…I feel like you did?_

Santana: _Is this your way of asking if I like sprinkles?_

Brittany: _Maybe._

Santana: _I love sprinkles. Sprinkles are great. Could eat 'em all day._

Brittany: _Your lack of enthusiastic punctuation implies sarcasm…_

Santana: _It does?!_

Brittany: _Your excessive use of enthusiastic punctuation implies sarcasm…_

Santana: _I can't win with you!_

Brittany: _Hey, you started it_

Santana: _Do YOU like sprinkles?_

Brittany: _I love sprinkles! Sprinkles are great! Could eat 'em all day!_

Santana: _Now I'm just confused._

Brittany: _Aren't we all?_

Santana: _About sprinkles?_

Brittany: _Well…they are an acquired taste._

Santana: _Sprinkles taste like nothing…how can 'nothing' be an acquired taste?_

Brittany: _Exactly._

Santana: _Huh?_

Brittany: _See you in a few hours ;)_

Santana had nothing to wear. Absolutely nothing. Of course, that was mostly her own fault. Avoiding her laundry had just resulted in a waist-high pile of dirty clothes in the corner of her bedroom. She was ashamed. And now, she was late.

Quinn: _S, where are you? Wherever you are, walk into a grocery store and get extra bacon. Like…five packs, maybe?_

Santana: _Sorry…couldn't find anything to wear. FIVE PACKS?! _

Quinn: _Hurry up. Rachel showed up early and her voice scares me._

Santana was only poking fun at Quinn. She had stopped at the supermarket yesterday and bought seven packs of bacon. She knew Quinn well enough to plan ahead.

(Unknown Number): _Hello, Santana. This is Rachel Berry. Quinn Fabray gave me your phone number just now. I am in her kitchen. We are eagerly awaiting your arrival to our first brunch as friends! I look forward to seeing you soon!_

Santana scowled at her phone as she pulled on a pair of skinny jeans and a thin maroon sweater. She had already done her makeup and her hair so she was set to leave. After she collected a few bottles of champagne, and the packs of bacon, she headed out. In a cab on the way to Quinn's place, she received two more texts, almost simultaneously.

Brittany: _Hey, you coming? I have all these cupcakes and no one to throw sprinkles at…_

Kurt: _WHY didn't you introduce me to Quinn as SOON as we became friends?! Her place is as glamorous as Marilyn Monroe herself. I wonder if Quinn will adopt me…_

Santana snorted at Kurt's text. She sent a quick text back to Brittany telling the blonde that she would be there soon.

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"SANTANA!" Quinn shouted, rushing over to the door.

"Seven packs, Q. Calm it down!" Santana said. She thrust the bag of bacon in front of her body as a shield.

"Seven packs of what? Cigarettes? Because I don't think you should be smoking, it's extremely bad for your health!" Rachel interrupted.

"Santana," Kurt stepped between Rachel and Santana. He tugged Santana's arm over to Quinn's dining room table before she could even remove her scarf. "_Look_ at the cupcakes Brittany made. Amazing, right?"

Santana barely had time to breathe before Rachel was taking her scarf and purse for her. Kurt was shoving a cupcake into her hands and she heard Quinn unwrapping the bacon packs in the kitchen. "Where's Brittany?"

"Miss me?" Brittany's voice carried down the hallway.

Santana turned around to see Brittany appear from the doorway to Quinn's living room. The blonde was wearing a soft white long-sleeved shirt and loose-fitting jeans. Her socks were neon purple. Santana smiled wide. "Who are you again?"

Brittany frowned and scrunched her nose. "No one important."

"Didn't think so," Santana said, still smiling. She set the cupcake down and looked at the rest of them. "They're beautiful."

Brittany's laugh was louder than she expected. "Stop."

"Really," Santana insisted. "I can't bake for shit. These look great…"

Brittany rolled her eyes but smiled at Santana. "Thank you."

"I never knew Quinn had such a fondness for bacon…" Kurt mumbled to Santana from where he was standing beside her.

Brittany nodded. "I feel like if you were five minutes later, you would have walked in on a panic attack…"

"I think it's an obsession," Santana told them. "I tried to sign her up for that show '_My Strange Addiction_', but the producers never called me back."

Rachel's voice could be heard with Quinn's in the kitchen.

Brittany laughed quietly. "Quinn already burned two omelets."

"Three," Kurt corrected.

Santana groaned. She didn't know why Quinn insisted on cooking anymore.

"Rachel brought vegan pancakes, which actually aren't that bad…" Brittany said.

"I'll fix this," Santana said. Usually, she let Quinn do all the cooking and burning. But, there were guests this time. So, Santana wanted to at least make sure the food they were about to consume was classified as edible. She marched into the kitchen where Rachel was lecturing Quinn on the negative health impact of eating so much bacon. Santana could see that Quinn was barely listening. "Rachel," She said, "why don't you help Kurt pick out a movie or two from Quinn's collection."

"Okay!" Rachel exclaimed. Kurt followed her out of the room.

"Q," Santana said. She took the pack of bacon from Quinn's hands. "Let me."

"Want some juice?" Brittany offered to Santana, when the brunette had taken over control of the frying pan.

"Sure, thanks."

Brittany poured juice for the three of them while Santana cooked the bacon carefully. Quinn stood and watched the meat cook.

Santana thought it was cute how Brittany hummed while she poured juice.

"You're gonna burn it!" Quinn suddenly said.

Santana scowled and pushed Quinn back, away from the stove. "Q, I'm not gonna burn _anything_. That's more _your _territory…remember? Just go and get some blankets and pillows for the living room. I promise your bacon will be perfect."

Brittany's eyes darted back and forth between Santana, who looked like a stern mother, and Quinn, who looked like a nervous child. Eventually, Quinn wandered off to do as Santana told her.

"God," Santana said to Brittany, once Quinn was gone. "I swear…If they ever stop making bacon, I'll have to lock her up."

"You're sweet," Brittany announced. She leaned on the countertop next to Santana. She watched as the brunette slowly turned each piece of meat and carefully monitored the heat so no grease popped out of the pan.

"Why?" Santana asked.

"I don't know," Brittany said. "You just are. You're a good friend."

Santana smirked. "I'm the _best_ friend."

Brittany chewed on her bottom lip. "This is fun. I haven't done something like this in years."

"Watch movies on the floor while eating unhealthy amounts of bacon?" Santana asked. "Because that's what you're about to do." At this point, the bacon was the only salvageable form of food. She was not going near the vegan pancakes.

Brittany laughed and shook her head. "I _meant_ hanging out with friends. It feels good."

Santana finally turned to look at Brittany. Once again, the woman's eyes caught her attention for longer than she was comfortable with.

"Santana!" Kurt called from the living room. "Quinn wants to know how the bacon is doing!"

Santana rolled her eyes. "On a scale of one to done? Seven." She heard Quinn's cheer.

Brittany, who was simply keeping Santana company, felt useless. "Can I do anything to help you? I'm not _too _bad at cooking."

Santana was glad for the offer. "Yea, here." She took out another pan and placed more raw bacon into it. When she saw Brittany's questioning look she decided to provide explanation. "What? You think I brought seven packs for nothing? Start frying more up."

"Quinn can eat an entire pack of bacon by herself?" Brittany asked. She was in close quarters with Santana, as they were now cooking side-by-side.

Santana scoffed. "She can eat _four_ whole packs by herself."

Brittany looked at Santana with wide eyes.

"Trust me. I've seen her do it. In college she even won an eating contest."

"She did?"

"Ask her yourself. But make sure to address her as Manhattan Bacon Queen, 2009."

Brittany burst into giggles.

"I'm not even kidding. She could have gone pro."

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"Is the bacon ready, yet?" Kurt asked, coming into the kitchen for the third time.

"I _just_ sent out a plate. Did she finish it all!?" Santana asked.

Brittany was still cooking more bacon next to her.

"I'm just gonna stay in here," Kurt said. He didn't feel like listening to any more of Quinn and Rachel's argument over whether bacon was good or bad. It was exhausting. He leaned against the counter top next to Brittany. "How are you guys doing?"

"Mind taking over?" Santana asked him. She changed places with Kurt. The heat and strong smell of bacon throughout the apartment was making her delirious. "Thanks."

"I forgot to say how much I like your shirt, Kurt," Brittany said once Kurt was in place next to her.

Santana looked at the man's dress shirt. It was a faded pink button-up. "You overslept," she stated.

Kurt and Brittany both looked at her.

"Me?" Brittany asked.

"No, me." Kurt answered. He narrowed his eyes at Santana. "How did you know that?"

Brittany smiled. She was glad she wasn't the only one that was frustrated by Santana's observational skills.

"You have a stain on the front of your shirt. It's green."

"And that tells you I overslept, _how_?" Kurt asked. He swiped at the already-dry stain on his shirt.

"Well…I know you drink a green smoothie every morning. The fact that your shirt is stained with it, and that you're still wearing the shirt, means that you were drinking it after you got dressed. _And_ that you didn't have enough time to change. That means that you were rushing. The only reason you would have rushed is if you overslept."

Kurt sighed.

Brittany beamed. "That was awesome. Is she right?" She asked Kurt.

"Always." Kurt answered.

Santana just shrugged. "You walked through the shortcut past 7th avenue to get here. That's the only construction zone between your apartment and Quinn's. You've got the concrete dust on the sides of your shoes."

Kurt looked down at his shoes. Sure enough, there was an almost imperceptible smudge of light gray dust on the sides of the brown suede. "I hate when you do that."

Brittany laughed.

"And you," Santana said, turning her focus onto the blonde. "You burned half of your first batch of cupcakes. So, you had to go out and get another box of cake mix."

Brittany furrowed her brows.

"What? Kurt asked. The cupcakes look great!"

Santana nodded. "Yes, they do. But only half of them are Funfetti cupcakes. Since one box makes 24 cupcakes, and only about 10 of them have sprinkles out of the 24 your brought today, then all the rest are form a separate cake mix. When we went shopping, we only bought one box of cake mix so I know you had to go out and get more. You also ate two." Santana had observed the sprinkle-speckled cupcakes when she had first arrived. It was easy to deduce.

Brittany blushed.

"She's right, isn't she?" Kurt mumbled. He turned back to continue turning the almost-done bacon.

"No cupcakes for you," Brittany told Santana, waving the spatula at her.

"Hey!" Santana said. "I'm just spreading the love."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Yea? Well you…you…"

Santana raised her eyebrow at him.

Kurt huffed.

"I just know what to look for," Santana said.

"Remind me never to lie around you," Brittany said, catching Santana's eye.

"I've lied to her a bunch, things slip past her, don't worry," Kurt told Brittany.

"Hey!" Santana protested again.

Brittany laughed. "You have?" She asked Kurt.

"Sorry," Kurt briefly told Santana.

"What have you lied to me about?!"

"Those are questions for another time," Kurt said. He plated the cooked bacon and whisked it into the living room before Brittany stopped laughing.

"So I _can_ lie to you."

"I wouldn't advise it," Santana replied. She returned Brittany's smile and helped the blonde put her pieces of bacon on another plate.

"You look really pretty today," Brittany said, once they had turned off the stove.

Santana eyes Brittany suspiciously. Was Brittany testing her, now? Santana maintained careful eye contact with the other woman. The blonde was grinning at her. "You're not lying…I don't think…"

Brittany shook her head. "Nope, I'm not."

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"That movie was…so…good," Rachel hiccupped.

"Rach, please stop crying…" Quinn said, trying to further comfort the smaller woman.

Santana didn't know what to do. It made her feel uncomfortable when other people cried. "I still can't believe you've never seen Bambi before."

"His…his mother _died_ and then he…he has to overcome so much! It was s-so…_beautiful._"

Santana wondered if Rachel was always this dramatic. She suspected so.

"I'm gonna go make mimosas…" Kurt said.

Quinn handed Rachel a tissue. "Do…do you want a hug?"

Santana would have laughed at Quinn's unusual offer if Rachel hadn't immediately launched herself into Quinn's barely-ready arms. She turned to look at Brittany, who had been sitting on the couch next to her. "You okay?"

Brittany looked at Santana. "Yea…why wouldn't I be?"

"I _saw_ you tear up when Bambi's mother died _and _at the end. I thought you had seen this movie a thousand times?"

Brittany nodded. She had been the one to suggest this movie, after all. "I have. Doesn't mean it still doesn't make me sad."

Santana, again, wasn't comfortable around emotional people. Sadness wasn't something she usually dealt with very well. "Do you want a _hug_?" Santana mocked Quinn's words while opening her arms and jokingly twisting her body toward Brittany.

"Ok," Brittany said. She called Santana's bluff and leaned in.

Santana almost forgot how to breathe as Brittany pressed into her. Thankfully, her body remembered how to function and she was able to wrap her arms around Brittany.

Brittany laughed as Santana hugged her. At first, the brunette felt stiff but then she relaxed.

"Just don't start crying on me," Santana warned.

Brittany only laughed harder. "You're a terrible hugger."

"No I'm not!" Santana protested. She tried squeezing Brittany more firmly to prove her point.

"Your body is too stiff," Brittany explained, "Also, the hugger is supposed to support the person they're hugging, no matter if they cry or not."

Santana sighed. But, Brittany felt too nice to let go.

"Santana sucks at sadness," Quinn shouted over to them.

Santana briefly turned her head and saw Quinn awkwardly patting Rachel's back while Rachel sniffled into her shoulder.

"When my college boyfriend broke up with me, I went to Santana's dorm room balling my eyes out and you know what she did?" Quinn asked Brittany.

Santana tried to pull back from Brittany so that she could shoot Quinn a warning look, but the blonde a surprisingly firm hold on her. So, she let herself be hugged and awaited Quinn's answer unenthusiastically.

"What?" Brittany asked. She rubbed her chin on the soft fibers of Santana's maroon sweater. Was it cashmere?

"She gave me a left over taco from Taco Bell and took me to a lame-ass movie called _Horror in the Attic_."

"Santana!" Brittany scolded.

Santana was relieved when she felt Brittany laughing against her. It actually felt rather peculiar. She could feel the blonde's ribs press against her with every inhale. Her laughter sent pleasant vibrations through both their bodies.

Brittany finally pulled away from Santana.

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Santana said. She turned to face Quinn entirely so that Brittany wouldn't have such a close-up view of the blush she was sporting.

"So you're terrible at comforting people, is that it?" Brittany asked.

"She's terrible at everything." Quinn said with a huge smile on her face.

Santana figured that Quinn was just budding in on their conversation so that she didn't have to pay full attention to Rachel, who was still dabbing her eyes with tissues.

Kurt came back in the living room and saw that Rachel was crying basically _on_ Quinn and that Brittany was much closer to Santana than he remembered. "Okay, what did I miss?" He accused.

Santana rolled her eyes.

"We've established that Rachel has a flare for the dramatic arts and that Santana is compassion-less," Brittany reported.

"I prefer the term 'feelings-challenged'," Santana mumbled. She moved to smack Brittany lightly on the shoulder. She was trying to deal with how close Brittany was still sitting next to her.

Brittany caught Santana's flying wrist and held it down.

"Who wants mimosas?" Kurt asked, finally setting the filled flutes down on Quinn's wooden coffee table. He made sure that they were all placed on coasters.

Santana wordlessly reached forward, grabbed a glass, and downed her mimosa in one gulp.

"Hey!" Brittany said, squeezing Santana's wrist, which still rested in her grip. "We were supposed to make a toast!"

Quinn was already kneeling beside Santana, reaching for a glass. Thankfully, Rachel's crying had stopped.

"We were?" Rachel asked.

Brittany nodded. "We have to make a toast to this new group of friends,"

Santana eyed her empty glass.

Brittany rolled her eyes and carefully poured half of her mimosa into Santana's flute. "You owe me half a drink, now."

Santana scoffed.

"Okay," Quinn interrupted, "Let's make a toast. To awesome people and awesome bacon!"

Kurt frowned at Quinn but raised his glass nonetheless.

"Cheers!" Rachel announced.

They all clinked their glasses together and drank.

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"Let me take you home," Brittany said softly.

"You don't have to," Santana told her. "A cab back to my place is only like five bucks." Really, she didn't live that far from Quinn.

Brittany surveyed the living room. It was already eight o clock. The sky was completely dark. Still, there was enough light to see Rachel and Kurt, snuggled up together on the floor with blankets and pillows. Both were sleeping. Quinn was watching something on MTV with the utmost attention. She was also quickly polishing off the few strips of leftover bacon from earlier in the day.

Santana had eaten three cupcakes. She could still taste the frosting on her lips. Brittany had eaten five, so she felt better. She wondered if there were any more. "Really, Britt, it's no trouble."

Brittany nudged Santana from where they were still sitting on the couch. She had never moved back to her original spot. Instead, she had let Santana's body heat be her excuse to stay close. Really, Santana had to be the warmest person that she had ever met. It was like her skin was a furnace. "Please?" Brittany asked.

Santana didn't know why Brittany wanted to drive her home so badly. She also didn't want the blonde woman to think that she couldn't take care of herself.

"It's cold and dark. Don't you prefer me to a smelly cab?"

Santana couldn't deny that. Plus, her head started feeling fuzzy after her second mimosa. "Okay, okay."

Brittany smiled. She had been nervous to ask Santana for awhile now. Even through the third and fourth movies that all of them had watched, Brittany had been thinking about the brunette beside her. Santana was always making her second-guess herself.

"But, can we, like, leave in fifteen minutes?" Santana asked.

"Why?" Brittany asked in return.

Santana yawned. Everything was so warm and she didn't want to move just yet. Especially since she knew it was going to be cold outside. The heat on the right side of her body, where she could feel Brittany, was too much to handle. It had been making her increasingly sleepy as the day wore on. Now that their last movie had ended and she no longer had anything to pay attention to, Santana felt her eyes drooping.

"Oh no ya don't," Brittany said. She leaned over, propping up Santana's wilting body with her shoulder.

Santana whined. "Whyyyyyy?"

"C'mon," Brittany patted Santana's knee and grabbed her wrists to help pull the brunette into a standing position with her. "Let's get you home otherwise we'll both end up passing out and being really late for work tomorrow."

Santana rubbed at her eyes. The both of them said goodbye to Quinn, who muttered a farewell through a mouth full of bacon. Santana followed Brittany out the door and to her car, which was parked around the corner from Quinn's apartment. The cold wind bit at her cheeks.

"Here you go," Brittany said. She held the passenger side door of her car open for Santana and closed it once the brunette had slid in.

Santana shivered and waited for Brittany to round the car and get in herself before thanking her.

"No problem," Brittany said.

Santana liked the way that Brittany's voice got quieter in the night. It was soothing. She buckled her seatbelt. "A guy has been in this seat."

"What?" Brittany asked. She stuck her key in the ignition and the car rumbled to life.

Santana wiggled her legs, showing Brittany the large amount of leg room that she had, unlike when she had been in Brittany's car on Friday. "A dude's definitely been in here…moved the seat back…"

Brittany stayed quiet. "It was Carter."

Santana doubted it. The seat was not only pushed far back, but it was also at a more obtuse angle. She doubted Carter liked riding at such a relaxed angle. "No it wasn't."

Brittany didn't say anything.

Santana stayed equally as quiet as Brittany pulled away from the curb.

"It…it was Puck," Brittany finally said as she drove down the still-busy New York streets.

"Puck?" Santana asked.

Brittany shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"It was a date, wasn't it?"

Brittany sighed. "How'd you know?"

"Cologne," Santana responded. She adjusted the seat back to the way that she liked it and settled in for the short car ride. "He hasn't ever smelled so strongly when I've been around him before but your car reeks of aftershave. That means a date," Santana said. She looked out the window. "How was it, if you don't mind me asking?"

"A mistake. That's how it was." Brittany replied. Her cheeks flushed with her sudden honesty. For some reason, it felt weird talking about it with Santana.

The brunette turned her head so that she could see Brittany. "A mistake?"

"Yea," Brittany said. "I…he's been asking me for a really long time and…I dunno…I just gave in."

Santana didn't really know what to say. She couldn't tell much about Brittany and Puck except that they seemed comfortable around each other as friends. "You could do better, anyway."

Brittany laughed. "Yea, I hope so."

"Was the date that bad?" Santana asked, now in higher spirits.

Brittany shrugged. "You know when you're with someone and it just feels _not right_. Like, not _bad_, but…"

Santana nodded. "Kind of."

"It was just…a mistake."

"Okay," Santana said, not knowing what else to say. "I'm sorry it was bad."

Brittany smiled.

"You'll have better dates," Santana said.

Brittany was quiet.

Santana watched as Brittany touched her left ring finger. She still didn't quite know why Brittany had that nervous tick. But, it was telling. Santana just didn't know how to decipher it. "Like I said…you can do much better."

The blonde bit the inside of her lower lip. "I actually think he's interested in _you_. He kept mentioning how hot you are."

Santana froze. "Gross." She heard Brittany's laugh fill the empty air around her.

"But, then again, he doesn't know you're gay. Also, I'm pretty sure he likes Quinn too."

Santana groaned. "Yea…you definitely deserve better than him."

"I hope so," Brittany repeated. "I've had a horrible track record with these things."

"What do you mean?" Santana asked.

"I think I'm just unlucky in love," Brittany told her. She ran her free hand through her hair and focused on the street lamps through the windshield as she drove. "Nothing ever goes right for me."

"Me either," Santana said. She remembered what Brittany said about soul mates. "You really think soul mates exist?"

Brittany quickly looked at Santana. "Yea…but I'm getting more doubtful every day."

Santana nodded to herself. "Want to go on a friend date?"

Brittany stilled. What? "What?" She asked.

Santana turned her body to face Brittany while the blonde drove. "Quinn and I used to do it all the time. When we were bored or stressed, we would take each other on friend dates. Like a real date…but without all the kissing and…other stuff, obviously."

Brittany laughed at Santana's words. "Obviously?"

"Want to?" Santana asked. "I could take you on the awesomest friend date you've ever had."

"It would be the _only_ friend date I've ever had."

"So that's a yes?" Santana asked.

"What happens on these friend dates?" Brittany asked. She maneuvered her car around a stray traffic cone.

Santana smiled at Brittany's skepticism. "Well, whoever asks the friend on the friend date, which would be me, is in charge of taking the other person on the best date possible. It's a simple concept," Santana explained. "We could go to dinner and a movie. Or go shopping. Quinn liked to have coffee and go to art museums. We do anything you want to do. That's the point."

Brittany smiled. She imagined a younger Quinn and a younger Santana drinking coffee and slowly walking through art exhibits. She wondered what Santana was like back then and if she was any different than what she was like now. "Anything I want to do?"

"Yep, _and _I'm not allowed to complain," Santana said. "That's why friend dates are better than _actual_ dates."

"I like it."

"There's only one catch," Santana told Brittany. She was now extremely excited about her idea. She was glad that she remembered, even though he last friend date with Quinn had been years ago.

"What's the catch?" Brittany asked.

"You have to take me on one, too," Santana said. "That way it's equal."

"I'm all about equality," Brittany said, smiling. She turned to Santana, who was smiling just as widely as she was. "Let's do it."

Santana actually bounced in her seat. "Yes!"

Brittany laughed.

Santana didn't care. She couldn't find it in herself to be embarrassed. "When do you want to do it?"

Brittany thought a moment. "How about on Wednesday night? I have a huge board meeting that afternoon, which you actually have to sit in on, so I feel like I'll need a good friend date to de-stress."

Santana knew Brittany had a huge meeting on Wednesday. She was the one who had scheduled it. "Perfect. Wednesday it is. Now all you have to tell me is at least two things that you would like to do."

"Anything…?"

"Anything." Santana confirmed again. She watched Brittany expertly parallel park outside of her apartment building. Once again, she found that the night suited Brittany much more than the daytime did. At night, Brittany felt more like a real person. Maybe it was the shadows from the street lamps. Or, maybe it was how the night time always found the two of them alone together. Santana didn't know.

Brittany put the car in park. She had too many ideas floating around in her head. "Can I think about it?"

"Yea, of course," Santana told her. She unbuckled her seat belt.

"I'll think up some ideas tonight and let you know tomorrow. How's that?"

Santana reached for the door handle. She gave one last smile to Brittany before pulling the door open. "Take all the time you need."


End file.
